In article <2troee$gp4 at mserv1.dl.ac.uk> daf at bms.brookes.ac.uk (David Fell) writes:
>Ted Staberow writes:
>>> It does not seem possible for a dehydrated organism to
>>maintain metabolic funtions. Is this possible??
>>>Metabolic functions can be suspended. This happens in spores, which have
>obviously evolved to survive this. In the case of Artemis (the brine
>shrimp), I'm pretty sure it is the organism itself that survives
>dehydration, and this may also be the case with rotifers, though I'm less
>sure of that. Organisms that survive dehydration have mechanisms to prevent
>protein denaturation during drying. Careful freeze drying should manage to
>minimize denaturation.
>>David Fell,
>School of Biological & Molecular Sciences,
>Oxford Brookes University,
>Oxford OX3 0BP,
>UK
>>daf at bms.brookes.ac.uk>
Artemia cysts in fact. Rotifers were seen to do this even by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
Kaprelyants, A.S., Gottschal, J.C. & Kell, D.B. (1993) Dormancy in nonsporulating
bacteria. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 104, 271-286 covers some of the ideas. Especially
recommended are the last 2 citations therein, to Keilin, who gives a beautiful review of
the history of "Anabiosis or latent life". This paper (Proc R Soc B 159, 149-191 (1959))
and other goodies are collected in an anthology edited by John Crowe & Jim Clegg called
Anhydrobiosis (publ. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsburg, PA, 1973, ISBN 0-87933-039-2.
The key point, as David says, is that the suspension of metabolism is reversible, and the
freeze frying of microbes for later recovery is routine in most microbiology labs. You can
buy freeze-dried yeast in the local supermarket, and satisfy yourself that when rehydrated
they do indeed metabolise. Finding the best additives to maximise survival/recovery is a hot
area of obvious commercial interest, and a(nother) good area in which improved understanding
of basic biology leads rather directly to industrial utility.
Douglas.
