Imagine the Toughest

Animal

And imagine what would that animal

do,

Inhospitable
Environment

in the most

Reproduction by egg

This Animal can survive

from

Temperature from -270 C to over

100C
Pressure from Vacuum to 6000
atm
Space radiation over 5000Gy
Dehydration originally from 85%
to 0.05%

Panspermia Hypothesis
Meteorite strike = Seed of Life
Potential of life from another
planet
Extremophiles like tardigrade
can adapt to extraterrestrial
environment

Survival Strategy:
Cryptobiosis

Anhydrobiosis
Cryobiosis
Anoxybiosis
Osmobiosis

Anhydrobiotic state (Tun)

Dehydrated to
1% of water
Reduced to
0.01% of
metabolic
activity
From 10, up to
150 years of
lifetime

3 category of tolerance in
universe
1. Vacuum & Space Radiation
2. Low Temperature
around 3K

3. High Temperature
when meteor strikes the air

Space effects on tardigrades

Tardigrades survive
exposure to space in
low Earth orbit
-by K. Ingemar Jonsson, Elke Rabbow, Ralph O.
Schill, Mats Harms-Ringdahl and Petra Rettberg

Space vacuum + UV
radiation

Space UV effects on
tardigrades
Tardigrade Resistance to Space
Effects : First Results of
Experiments on the LIFE-TARSE
Mission on FOTON-M3
(September 2007)
-by Lorena Rebecchi.Tiziana Altiero, Roberto

Guidetti,Michele Cesari, Roberto Bertolani, Manuela

Negroni, and Angela M. Rizzo3

Control groups
F1: Naturally dehydrated
using dry leaf litter, represents typical natural
habitat

F2: Experimentally dehydrated under

controlled conditions
F3: Hydrated, with food source
Moist leaf litter

F4: Hydrated, No food source

TC4: Control group on Earth, exposed in the
laboratory to the same temperature profile

Survival rate from Space

Vacuum

F4-DNA Repair
Mechanism?
C: F1(Naturally dehydrated)
TC4: On Earth
F4: Hydrated , no food
source
No visible damages to
genomic DNA (doublestrand breaks)
2 Hypothesis
Radiation was too weak
DNA was repaired by active

Survival from Cold

Temperature
Cold tolerance in
Tardigrada from
Dronning Maud Land,
Antarctica
by Lauritz Somme 9 Terje
Meier

Control groups
2 Samples used
1.Air dried dehydrated sample
2.Hydrated sample

Temperature variation
1. -20 C
2. -80 C
3. -180 C

Survival from Cold Temperature

1 - Hydrated Tardigrades
Temperature/time(
days)
-22C/185
-22C/235
-22C/283
-22C/587
-80C/7
22C/18 -80C/14
-80C/28
0
-80C/60
-80C/95
-80C/150
-180C/1
22C/29 -180C/2

Survival rate
33.2%
39.1~57.7%
26.2~58.6%
23.8~44.5%
30~91.7%
37.8~45%
16.6~68.2%
10.8~63.4%
5.9~75.8%
6.9~49.5%
0~5.6%
0%

Survival from Cold Temperature

2 - Dehydrated Tardigrades
Temperature/time(
days)
-22C/635

Survival rate

-22C/3040

14.9~51.3%

22C/60
5

41.5~54.3%

-180C/0

28.7~37%

-180C/2

34.5~52.8%

-180C/7

42.3~50.8%

-180C/14

25.7~47.6%

Survival from Cold

Temperature
Adapts to physiological stress by
entering cryptobiosis
high levels of non-reducing
sugar trehalose, which protects
membrane
Wax covers the surface and
helps to reduce transpiration
water loss by evaporation

Survival from High

Temperature
HighTemperature Tolerance
in Anhydrobiotic Tardigrades
Is Limited by Glass Transition
By S.Hengherr, M.R.Worland,
A.Reuner, F.Brmmer, and R.O.Schill

Control Groups
Dehydrated 48 hours of 33% humidity
60C, 75C, 80C, 90C, 95C, 1 hour
each
For Milnesium tardigradum, do additional
experiments at 100C, 101 C, 102 C, 103
C, 104C, 105C, 110C

Rest for 30mins and rehydrated

2 hours of no movement considered dead

Thermophile
1981 - 110,Pyrodictium occultum
1997 - 113,Pyrolobus fumarii
2003 - 121, Strain 121
2008 - 122,Methanopyrus kandleri

Species collected from 20 habitats

survived from over 60 -> Thermophile

Heat Survival Mechanism

Glass Transition
Transition of a rubbery state into a brittle state by
cooling or compression

Heat analysis by DSC (Differential Scanning

Salorimetry)
Measures heat flow differential from control

Transition of phase accompanies heat flow

Lowering point of differential heat flow level
corresponds to glass transition Temperature

 Glass Transition
Temperature of
tardigrades determines
maximum temperature
that it can survive