Tardigrades are microscopic animals that look like a cross between a caterpillar and a naked mole-rat. These aquatic invertebrates are almost impossible to kill. They can withstand the most extreme conditions such as the vacuum of outer space, 30 years in a freezer, boiling temperatures, pressures six times greater than the deepest ocean, several years of dehydration, and radiation lethal to pretty much every other living species on this earth.
Now, experiments have shown that the tardigrade’s resilience can be transferred to cultures of human cells. This could make it possible for humans to travel even deeper into space! These findings also may one day protect workers from radiation in nuclear facilities. It opens up the possibility of improving the stress resistance of human cells, which could benefit people undergoing radiation therapies. And I’m sure that’s just the beginning of what tardigrades can provide for humans.
In a study published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers the University of Tokyo presented a genetic analysis of Ramazzottius variornatus, which is thought to be among the toughest tardigrade species, and identified the protein responsible for keeping tardigrade DNA safe from radiation. Dsup, short for “Damage suppressor,” works by enveloping DNA and covering it from harmful agents without affecting the normal activity of genetic material.
Takekazu Kunieda, a molecular biologist at the University of Tokyo, lead author of the study, said:
“Tolerance against X-ray is thought to be a side-product of [the] animal’s adaption to severe dehydration.”
According to Kunieda, severe dehydration wreaks havoc on the molecules in living things. It can even tear apart DNA like X-rays can.
Furthermore, the team decided to genetically engineer human kidney cells grown in a lab culture to produce their own version of Dsup, and found that damage to those cells induced by X-rays was reduced by up to 50%. If a human being were genetically modified to produce Dsup throughout almost all of their tissue and organs, it would go a long way towards protecting them from cosmic rays and radiation.
Ingemar Jönsson, an evolutionary ecologist who studies tardigrades at Kristianstad University in Sweden, said:
“We are really just at the beginning of exploring the genetic treasure that the tardigrade genome represents.”
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