No nematodes had been known to achieve such a dormant state for thousands of years at a time, Teymuras Kurzchalia, a professor emeritus at the institute who was involved in the study, said on Saturday.
“The major take-home message or summary of this discovery is that it is, in principle, possible to stop life for more or less an indefinite time and then restart it,” Kurzchalia said.
Electron pictures of the general morphology of a female Panagrolaimus kolymaensis.Credit: PLOS Genetics
Researchers identified key genes in the nematode that allow it to achieve the cryptobiotic state. The same genes were found in a contemporary nematode called Caenorhabditis elegans, which can also achieve cryptobiosis.
“This led us, for instance, to understand that they cannot survive without a specific sugar called trehalose,” Kurzchalia said. “Without this sugar, they just die.”
While there are no clear practical applications for a deep understanding of cryptobiosis, that should not be a reason to stop the research, Kurzchalia said.
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The discovery of semiconductors, or of the double helix structure of DNA, he said, took decades to yield a practical use, but ultimately turned out to be revolutionary.
“That’s the interest of science,” he said. “You end somewhere you didn’t presume.”
Cryptobiosis could, perhaps one day, be engineered by humans, he added.
The Siberian permafrost has long offered the scientific community a window into organisms of the distant past. Ancient viruses, mummified bodies and a suite of microscopic creatures have been resurrected from the ice over the years.
Amid the COVID pandemic, some have expressed concerns about unearthing ancient micro-organisms, fearing that doing so could have deadly consequences for humanity.
Kurzchalia conceded that, theoretically, such a thing was possible, though he emphasised that the study of these organisms is conducted in sterile, lab-controlled settings.
A more prudent concern, in Kurzchalia’s view, is the threat of global warming significantly thawing the permafrost in Siberia. In that case, there would be no control over what is reintroduced to the world.
Though the ancient worms in the study died, that outcome was not unexpected given their lifecycle, Kurzchalia said.
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