Meet the 'water bear,' the world’s toughest animal

Maclean's ^ | Nov. 26, 2015 | Cathy Gulli

[MarchonDC09122009]

#WaterbearLivesMatter

[Patton@Bastogne]

looks like God did another “gene splice” miracle ...

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I wondered what the DNA of this beastie looks like.

From

National Geographic

Tardigrades have a huge amount—17.5 percent—of foreign DNA, a new study says.

A team sequenced the genome of a tardigrade species Hypsibius dujardini "to try to understand how it is that some animals can survive some amazingly extreme conditions,” co-author Bob Goldstein, a biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says via email.

They found the H. dujardini genome is material from several entirely different kingdoms—mostly bacterial (16 percent) but also fungal (0.7 percent), plant (0.5 percent), archaeal (0.1 percent), and viral (0.1 percent).

“We never expected to find that an animal genome would be quite so littered with foreign genes," said Goldstein, whose study was published November 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The tardigrade acquires foreign DNA via a process called horizontal gene transfer, in which genetic material is transferred directly between organisms instead of being passed down from parent to offspring.

The discovery of other DNA in the tardigrade is "really peculiar," says co-author Thomas Boothby, also a biologist at UNC.

“Many animals appear to have a small degree of horizontal gene transfer, including humans,” Boothby says. “But nowhere close to the proportion [about one-sixth of genes) that we see in the tardigrade genome.”

“What this tells us is that instead of thinking about a tree of life, we can start to think more about a web of life, where genetic material from one branch, say the bacterial branch, can cross over to the animal branch.”

[KosmicKitty]

I don’t want to be the one to break the news to honey badger.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Ewwww!!! Thanks

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Much appreciated. I understood the highest mountain, deepest ocean bit, just wondered if they are literally everywhere...ie. in my lawn, in my hot tub etc.

[Cold Heat]

I understood the highest mountain, deepest ocean bit, just wondered if they are literally everywhere...ie. in my lawn, in my hot tub etc.

Ummmmm.....Maybe it's better that you don't pursue the answer to that question...lol

[Cold Heat]

To study them, the best place to collect them is a good food source for them like moss or lichens..

Even after being completely dried, they can reconstitute themselves with water.

They really need to be active to spot them, so if your hot tub is treated, and there is nothing for them to eat, you probably won't find them...

•Tardigrades are also known as Water Bears, and Moss Piglets

•Tardigrades have been found in Antarctica, 5m below solid ice!

•Tardigrades can withstand 1000x the radiation that a human can!

•Tardigrades can live for over 100 years in cryptobiosis!

•Tardigrades can survive heat for minutes at 151°C or being chilled for days at -200°C, or for a few minutes at -272°C

• Tardigrades can survive in the vacuum of space!

•Tardigrades can survive at pressures 6x greater than those on the ocean floor!

•Tardigrades can survive being boiled in alcohol!

[huldah1776]

Makes my butt itch.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Thank you for breaking it down. I still have the creeps just reading this, and that picture is stuck in my mind!