Fascinating microbes: Tardigrade

This post of 'Fascinating Microbes' will not be of a microorganism but it will be about an animal which is very much fascinating and it is quite small about 0.3 to 0.5 millimetres.

Tardigrade or Waterbears are microscopic animals which have 8 legs and is found almost all over the world even in very extreme conditions.
Scientists have reported Tardigrades in hot springs, on top of the Himalayas, under layers of solid ice and in ocean sediments.

As a microbiologist I have studied about various extremophiles, which are microorganisms who can live in conditions such as very high or very low temperature, pressure, dehydration etc. And the things which are most tough can be most advantageous to a biologist for various purposes. And that is why chose Tardigrade to blog about.


Tardigrade can live under many extreme conditions!

Temperature: heated for a few minutes to 151 °C (424 K) or being chilled for days at −200 °C
Pressure: can survive extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1,200 times atmospheric pressure.
Dehydration: can survive in a dry state nearly for almost 10 years
Radiation: can withstand median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma-rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions); 5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human.
Outer space: Tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days.

IF it were pathogenic we would all have been dead!

Looking at the Tardigrade I can say that

'being small doesn't really matter being the toughest matters most!'

Cool tardigrade tatto

Tardigrade: 1
Scientists: 0

Some funny pictures which I made after studying about Tardigrade. Special thanks to my sister for giving me ideas.

Add your comments below!

Fascinating microbes: Pseudomonas putida

I learned in my college that you cannot patient a microorganism which is present in nature, however you can patient an organism if you genetically mutate it. Well I found out that it's quite not true, after I stumbled upon a webpage containing info about Pseudomonas putida.

Pseudomonas putida is the first organism which is patented. After reading about it I discovered that it is quite an amazing microbe. And that is why I am adding it to my list of ‘fascinating microbes’.

Today polyaromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs are a nuisance as they are potent pollutants. They are found in soil, oily substances etc. The most common examples of these are anthracene and phenanthere. They were considered as non-biodegradable until P. putida comes into picture. Yes, it can degrade PAHs.

It has a very diverse metabolism. And this organism is put into use in areas like biodegradation, bioremediation and also in synthesis of biodegradable plastics.

Pseudomonas putida is a rod-shaped, nonsporeforming, gram-negative bacteria that utilizes aerobic metabolism. The good thing about this organism is that it does not cause any infections to human beings, yet.

This organism is my favorite organism, well, I kinda like anything that helps our environment. This organism  will be very helpful in future as the amount of pollutants are increasing rapidly.

As they say ‘one man can make a difference’, I say ‘one microbe can make a difference’ :]

Fascinating microbes: Desulforudis audaxviator

Scanning electron micrograph. (Chivian et al, 2008)

Article by IfuM

Desulforudis the full name is Desulforudis audaxviator, fascinating name isnt it? But the characteristics of the organism is more fascinating than the name. They have been isolated from Earth's surface for several million years, because analyses of the water that they live in showed that it is very old and has not been diluted by surface water. They have survived for millions of years on radioactive decay of minerals. It is a gram positive bacteria which was found in water samples obtained from 2.8 km underground in the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa.

The most fascinating fact about this bacteria is that it can not only survive under absence of oxygen but also at very high pH of 9.3 and temperatures as high as 60°C. D. audaxviator gets energy from the radioactive decay of uranium in the surrounding environment. It has genes to extract carbon from dissolved carbon dioxide and other genes to fix nitrogen, which comes from the surrounding rocks.

The name Desulforudis audaxviator has its own fascinating origin.
Desulforudis because it is a sulfate-reducing bacterium. And the name 'audaxviator' comes from the novel 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' by Jules Verne.
Latin: "Descende, audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges"
English: "Descend, bold traveller, and you will attain the center of the Earth"
Combine these two and you will get the name Desulforudis audaxviator, nick named 'the bold traveller'.

The organism belongs to a taxonomic group which has only one biological type i.e. Monotypic taxon. It also has the ability to encyst itself to protect its DNA from heat and high pH.

Fascinating microbes: Myxococcus xanthus

Myxococcus xanthus is a motile (twitching motility) gram negative thin rods, found ubiquitously in soil. The fascinating thing about M. xanthus is its predatory action. They form colonies which are saprotrophic, biofilm known as swarm. This swarm modifies its environment which facilitates its predatory action. M. xanthus produces extracellular digestive enzymes, which helps it to degrade extracellular matter and metabolize it easily. Another interesting fact about M. xanthus  is that they form fruiting bodies (dome shaped structure made up of approx. 100,000 cells)  under  starving conditions. These fruiting bodies then forms dormant myxospores which becomes metabolically active under favorable conditions.

Myxococcus xanthus  is also known for its production of some of  medicinal useful secondary metabolites. 

Image from : http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/myxococcus_xanthus

Fascinating microbes: Vampirococcus

Article by Mufaddal Dewaswala

When we hear the word ‘vampire’ we usually think about ‘blood sucking’ or ‘twilight’.  Well you may be partially right. The organism Vampirococcus is a predatory bacterium, which feeds upon cytoplasm of phototrophic bacteria such as Chromatium.

It is a Gram negative organism. Vampirococcus attaches itself to the membrane of the host and reproduces by ‘sucking’ the innards of its prey. Vampirococcus can not replicate via fission unless it’s attached to a prey cell. The organism is an epibiont. [Epibiont means an organism that lives on the surface of another living organism, in this case the cell membrane]

Some more information; Source: Fresh water, Morphology: Oviodal, Response to oxygen: Anaerobe.

Reference: Guerrero, Richard. “Predatory Prokaryotes: Predation and Primary Consumption Evolved in Bacteria.” 20 Feb 2009.