Back from the dead! Ancient roundworm revives after lying dormant in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years
- Long-extinct worms lay dormant while frozen in the Siberian permafrost
- These worms were revived after the scientists provided them with food and water.
Time travel has been dominated by a tiny worm that has reawakened after being frozen for some 46,000 years.
Thought to have lived in the late Pleistocene, the time of woolly mammoths, a small group of worms plucked from the Siberian permafrost thawed and “came back to life.”
The worms, of a long-extinct species called Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, were not actually dead, but rather in a dormant state called cryptobiosis, where they shut down until their bodily processes are undetectable.
Previously, scientists only had evidence that roundworms could remain in this state for less than 40 years.
But radiocarbon dating of the plants inside the icy burrow where the worms were found suggests they are around 46,000 years old.
A group of worms extracted from the Siberian permafrost thawed and “came back to life”
Professor Teymuras Kurzchalia, lead author of A study of the incredible find, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, and Professor Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, said: “This little worm could now be in line for a Guinness World Record, having remained in a state of suspended animation for much longer than anyone thought possible.
That he could be reanimated after 46,000 years absolutely flabbergasted me.
It’s more like the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, but over a much longer period.
The most spectacular example of long-term suspended animation was seen in revived bacterial spores after up to 40 million years in the abdominal contents of extinct bees preserved in buried amber.
But the new result is believed to be the best yet among the few tiny creatures, including the famously indestructible microscopic tardigrades nicknamed ‘water bears’, and aquatic creatures called rotifers, which can go into a dormant state and then reanimate.
Five years have passed since Russian scientists recovered roundworms Panagrolaimus kolymaensis from the permafrost with the burrow of an extinct arctic gopher, 130 feet from the surface of the Duvanny Yar outcrop on the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia.
Now the new study has shown how long those worms may have waited to reanimate.
A small group of reanimated worms, which were revived after being given food and water, lived for less than a month, but have given rise to more than 100 generations of new worms.
These worms were found to use a similar mechanism to enter a state of suspended animation as the larvae of modern roundworms called Caenorhabditis elegans, found in compost heaps and rotting fruit and plants across Europe and the world.
The worms, from a long-extinct species called Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, were not actually dead, but rather in a dormant state called cryptobiosis (Pictured: Siberia)
Laboratory experiments suggest that it may be important for the worms to first be slightly dehydrated before they can successfully survive at -80 °C with their major bodily functions shut down.
On a biochemical level, both species produced a sugar called trehalose when mildly dehydrated in the laboratory, possibly allowing them to withstand severe freezing and dehydration.
Professor Kurzchalia said: “We are a long, long way from using this science to bring back cryogenically frozen humans or dinosaurs, although we now have a better understanding of how to achieve a state between life and death.”
But there are many things to investigate.
“This could help store cells or tissues in the future.”
READ MORE: Could WORMS Hide the Secret to Anti-Aging? Scientists extend the lifespan of a roundworm that is genetically similar to humans FIVE TIMES
Scientists have managed to extend the lifespan of a worm by 500 percent in a startling discovery that could hold the secret to anti-aging in humans.
Caenorhabditis elegans, a roundworm that shares genetic traits with humans, typically lives for three to four weeks.
By modifying a pair of cellular pathways, the US-China research team was able to engineer a worm that lived for more than 14 weeks, a five-fold increase.
This increase in life expectancy would be the equivalent of human life for about 400 to 500 years.
The discovery could lead to similar combination therapies for humans that prolong the aging process, in the same way that combination therapies are used today to treat cancer and HIV.
Caenorhabditis elegans is a transparent, free-living nematode or roundworm, approximately 0.03 inches (1 mm) in length.
