So the importance here is it seems they've found a way to trigger the Tun state that make tardigrades tough (and which outside they very much are not) which would allow more consistent experiment design around tuns
What is the tun state of a tardigrade?
Tardigrades can survive extreme conditions by going into a “tun” state, in which their body dries out and their metabolism drops to as little as 0.01 percent of its normal rate. When conditions return to normal, the tardigrade revives itself. A tardigrade can stay in a tun state for decades.
Damn, that's really cool.
Also another fun fact: not all tardigrades are capable of going into the tun state. For example, aquatic tardigrades that live in freshwater streams can form what is called a summer egg, which allows them to survive hot and potentially dry conditions, but I don't believe much has been studied on this alternative state. IIRC marine tardigrades also cannot achieve the tun state, so this really only applies to terrestrial^*^ tardigrades.
^*^Terrestrial tardigrades are also sometimes referred to as aquatic tardigrades as they are only active (not in the tun state) in the presence of water (e.g., after it rains)
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TIL tardigrades are awesome.
Am I the only one who's reminded of The Three Body Problem?
Mild spoiler alert:
Unlike humans, they have evolved the special ability to 'dehydrate', turning themselves into a roll of canvas.
DEHYDRATE!!!
I really appreciate the way you asked and answered your own question
That would be .2 KCal for us a day! That’s wild
standby mode, effectively
To add, I think this bit is important as well. I’m just not smart enough to explain why.
with cysteine unavailable to the free radicals being produced, the tardigrades couldn’t form tuns.
Edit: I think it means that under stress the tardigrade forms the tun. But they also figured out that if cysteine is absent even under stress the tardigrade couldn’t form the tun.
Thanks for clarifying.
I think it goes a bit beyond that as well. Other organisms could, in theory, take some of the same measures the tardigrade takes to make itself hardier. It's possible that we don't see this all over the place because the chemical signalling is a requirement of the tun state. Without it, they're basically just dead. Without a signal to return to normal life, they'll stay like that forever. Furthermore, without the signal, they might have to rely on some other, less reliable mechanism, to enter the tun state to start with.
A signaling system that provides its cells with reliable information about environmental conditions is critical.
I think we might even find that the signaling system came first, and that nature selected for tardigrades that had some way to do something with the signal.
15ish minutes of tardigrade video with tasteful music/commentary.
I really enjoyed this thank you
I knew it would be Journey to Micro before I clicked it.
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