The ancient nematode has lain dormant in a fossilized squirrel burrow since the late Pleistocene, revealing that these worms can survive for tens of thousands of years longer than thought.
A microscopic worm survived in the Siberian permafrost for a record-breaking 46,000 years, scientists have discovered — tens of thousands of years longer than previously resurrected worms.
Now, a study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics may have found answers to these questions."Survival in extreme environments for prolonged periods is a challenge that only a few organisms are capable of," researchers wrote in the study."Here, we show that a soil nematode Panagrolaimus kolymaensis suspended life for 46,000 years in the Siberian permafrost."
The researchers analyzed the newly described nematode's genes and compared them to those of Caenorhabditis elegans roundworms, which were the first multicellular organisms to have their entire genome sequenced. In the absence of established genetic methods to study the recently thawed worm, C. elegans provided a well-studied model organism for comparison. The analysis revealed several shared genes linked to cryptobiosis.
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