Extreme extremophiles: more Mono Lake Nematodes (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, September 27, 2019, 14:54 (1885 days ago) @ David Turell

New found species can tolerate huge amounts of arsenic:

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/arsenic-resistant-nematodes-found-in-mono-la...

"In a study published today (September 26) in Current Biology, researchers found eight more species residing in the lake and its sediments—all hardy, tiny nematodes. Culturing one species from the group Auanema in the lab revealed that the animals are capable of surviving 500 times the dose of arsenic that would kill a person.

“'Mono Lake is famous for being a limited ecosystem in terms of animals . . . so it’s really cool that they’ve managed to demonstrate that there are a bunch of nematode species living in there, as well as the shrimp and the flies. It expands the whole ecosystem considerably,” says Lucy Stewart,

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"Of the eight species of worms the researchers collected, three were already described genetically and five had not been sequenced before. Based on the structures of the animals’ mouths, the team predicted that the Mono Lake nematodes use a variety of strategies to get food, including grazing on microbes, preying on other animals, and parasitizing hosts.

"Sternberg, Sapir, Lee, and colleagues were able to easily culture one of the isolated species in the lab. They determined that the animals could survive concentrations of arsenic 500 times higher than people can, thanks at least in part to a mutation the dbt-1 gene, which is involved in amino acid metabolism. A look at three other Auanema species that had been previously isolated from much less harsh environments showed that they also carry the mutation, as does a Hawaiian strain of the popular model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The mutation in dbt-1 is likely not the only thing contributing to arsenic resistance, however, because the Auanema species survive better in arsenic than any strain of C. elegans. "

Comment: It is amazing how tough life can be in being able to survive what would kill most.