back to article Tardigrade genes may hold secret to radiation treatments for humans

Drugs that prevent or reverse the effects of ionizing radiation have long been a sci-fi pipedream, but the gene sequencing of a newly discovered species of tardigrade could change all that. Tardigrades – also known as "water bears" – have an incredible tolerance for extreme conditions, including their ability to survive doses …

  1. O'Reg Inalsin

    Send high pigment people into space and compare

    Tree frogs living within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone had a remarkably darker dorsal skin coloration than frogs from outside the Zone. The maintenance of dark skin coloration was not linked to physiological costs in terms of frog body condition or oxidative status, and we did not detect short‐term changes in frog coloration. Dark coloration is known to protect against different sources of radiation by neutralizing free radicals and reducing DNA damage, and, particularly melanin pigmentation has been proposed as a buffering mechanism against ionizing radiation. Our results suggest that exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation, likely at the time of the accident, may have been selected for darker coloration in Chornobyl tree frogs.[Ionizing radiation and melanism in Chornobyl tree frogs, Pablo Burraco, Germán Orizaola, 2022]

  2. Korev Silver badge

    Whether a tardigrade-derived radiation treatment would be preventative or administered after exposure isn't as clear.

    And also at what dose (the paper is paywalled). You can get some Betalains from Beetroot and Chard, how much would you have to eat and how much is adsorbed?

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Facepalm

      I meant absorbed!

  3. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Why such immunity?

    More organisms have developed a response to help survive in their environment, so I am wondering why water bears needed to deal with high radiation doses in the first place? Panspermia perhaps?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Why such immunity?

      They're regular but simple eukaryotic invertebrates whose terrestrial members have evolved to live in extreme conditions such as those which will dry out for prolonged periods. Where there's an ecological niche something will evolve to fill it and those niches must have existed since the first plants started to colonise land or even intertidal environments. Radiation resistance is likely to be a by-product of resisting drying out etc.

      If panspermists were to propose tardigrades as the means by which life spread they'd then have to explain what they had to live on once they landed or how they had to back evolve to produce bacteria which are far more primitive. (They also need to explain why two sequential unlikely events, genesis of life and dispersal over long times and distances through the most hostile of conditions are more likely than one.)

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "why water bears needed to deal with high radiation doses"

    I'm not sure they do.

    The article says this was picked up from a bacteria. IE from something that's a lot older in Earth's history.

    Personally I've always thought that given the slowness of chemical propulsion and the normal amounts of shielding needed we'd be much better hollowing out small asteroids and move around with them. All that mass is already in space.

    However if this can be adapted to humans it's (potentially) a huge improvement and it is an elegant solution.

    Thinks of it like a distress call on Darwin's Radio.

  5. Mast1

    "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

    "The third finding involves a pair of proteins generated on exposure to radiation that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy used by all living cells"

    I am only an engineer, not a biologist, but I did wonder if this could become a new doping pathway for elite athletes...... (the proteins, not the radiation exposure)

    Preparing to be shot down in 3.....2.....1......

    1. Bebu
      Coat

      Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

      I am now pretty vague about the biochemistry (after four decades) but I don't think the rate of ATP production was the rate limiting step in muscular (actin/myosin) contraction. I think dealing with the lactic acid produced was more of a problem.

      I suspect the tardigrades produce more ATP, in part, to produce the other nucleotides (GTP, CTP, TTP) required for DNA repair.

      I wouldn't put it past these miniature equivalents of honey badgers to have a RAID based genome.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

        And to produce more ATP in the first place means stepping up the rest of the respiratory metabolism. ATP is the link between various steps in the oxidation of energy stores such as glucose which make energy available and the various bits of biochemistry such as muscle contraction which need it. The cells which need that energy will already be able to signal the mitochondria to get on with the job. As you say, this is more likely to be another signally pathway to satisfy other needs for ATP.

        Incidentally, as mitochondria play such a major role in energy handling and only descend maternally why do horse breeders pay much more attention to the sire than the dam?

        1. Someone Else Silver badge

          Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

          Incidentally, as mitochondria play such a major role in energy handling and only descend maternally why do horse breeders pay much more attention to the sire than the dam?

          Oh, c'mon...you know why, indeed!

        2. O'Reg Inalsin

          Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

          One reason might be that once you have a know good-sire you can create a lot children with it than with a known good-dam, especially if they are current athletes, so the dam isn't able to take time out for pregnancy. (Only guessing - I know nothing about it).

    2. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

      "The third finding involves a pair of proteins generated on exposure to radiation that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy used by all living cells"

      I am only an engineer, not a biologist, but I did wonder if this could become a new doping pathway for elite athletes...... (the proteins, not the radiation exposure)

      Well, it's quite cheap to buy in the UK, only ATP.

    3. Spazturtle Silver badge

      Re: "that speed up the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),"

      Once you get to the level or elite athletes it is not their muscles that fatigue first, performing at that level puts an enormous stress on your nervous system and it is your nervous system that fatigues first.

  6. Ball boy Silver badge
    Joke

    The answer is obvious, innit?

    A source of protein AND radiation resistance? I, for one, will be massively increasing my consumption of the little blighters from now on!

    I'll be releasing a range of suitably-named dishes just as soon as I can think of some :)

    1. Robin

      Re: The answer is obvious, innit?

      Something something Custardigrade?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The answer is obvious, innit?

        Mustartigrade - mmmm.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dumb idea

    so we will want to engineer a humanoid for long distance space travel, part Tard, part Human, part ? we can call the species Spaceman... and I wonder if they will have a big head and eyes, skinny, grey skin,,,,,

  8. _Elvi_

    I welcome our...

    .. little radiation resistive overlord water bears..

  9. normal1

    Because of their size?

    Sometimes, being smaller than a wavelength can be a good thing

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Because of their size?

      They're not that small, about half a mm, say about 20 time the size of a pollen grain. The damaging radiation is very much shorter than the visible part of the spectrum. Radiation can interact with electrons.

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