Russian scientists were able to revive two worms frozen for 46,000 years using water as a medium for revival, according to a scientific article published earlier this month.
But while the discovery made headlines for the astounding age of the frozen worms, researchers say the roundworms could also teach us something about surviving climate change – as our planet endures some of the hottest days on record.
One of the scientists involved Philipp Schiffer is convinced that “studying the adaptation of species to such extreme environments by analyzing their genomes will allow us to develop better conservation strategies in the face of global warming.”
Studying the worms’ inactivity for 46,000 years is beneficial for understanding their ability to adapt to extreme conditions, he said.
“As during climate change, the living conditions for many or most organisms are becoming more extreme, the knowledge about the adaptation of these little worms, can hopefully help us to develop methods and strategies to protect other organisms and maybe whole ecosystems,” Schiffer said. “To this end, we need to study and compare the genomes, and the genetic mechanisms of and in these nematodes and many other tiny invertebrate species out there.”
Researchers wrote in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Genetics about discovering a previously unknown species of roundworm that has survived for an extended period in Siberian permafrost. The worm was found 40 meters below the surface in a dormant state known as cryptobiosis. This condition allows organisms to withstand the absence of water or oxygen and extreme temperatures, freezing, or even salty environments.
Teymuras Kurzchalia, a retired professor from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, who participated in the research, explained that the worms enter a state that can be described as between death and life. During this state, their metabolic rates drop to levels that cannot be detected, Kurzchalia said in the article.
How did scientists revive the worms?
In 2018, Anastasia Shatilovich and a colleague from Russia’s Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science successfully revived two worms by rehydrating them with water, according to the research published in PLOS Genetics.
“Afterward, approximately 100 worms were transported to labs in Germany for further study. The scientists conducted radiocarbon analysis on plant material from the sample and determined that the deposits had been frozen for an astonishing 45,839 to 47,769 years,” researchers wrote.
There have been no reports of worms entering a dormant state for thousands of years, Kurzchalia states.
“Our experimental findings also show that Caenorhabditis elegans (Roundworm) can remain viable for longer periods in a suspended state than previously documented,” Kurzchalia said. “Overall, our research demonstrates that nematodes have developed mechanisms that allow them to preserve life for geological time periods.”
More discoveries:Researchers looked at 830-million-year-old halite and found microorganisms that may still be alive.
