Tardigrades are often considered the most endearing invertebrates, akin to the capybara of their realm, yet their significance surpasses mere charm.
This year, researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, discovered that when the tardigrades are under stress, their bodies produce unstable free radicals of oxygen and an unpaired electron.
When the amino acid cysteine, which is used in protein production, comes into contact with these oxygen-free radicals, it becomes oxidized, triggering a signal that tells the tardigrade when it’s time to enter into the tun. When the researchers prevented the free radicals from reacting with cysteine, the tardigrades couldn’t enter tun, meaning the cysteine is likely a key to all tardigrades’ survival strategies.
Study co-author Leslie Hicks told New Scientist that, “Cysteine acts like a kind of regulatory sensor. It allows tardigrades to feel their environment and react to stress.”
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