X-Message-Number: 30647
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:20:23 -0800 (PST)
From: 
Subject: Survival of antarctic soil metazoans at -80 degree C

[If they can do it...]

Cryo Letters. 2006 Sep-Oct;27(5):291-4.
Survival of antarctic soil metazoans at -80 degree C for six years.

  Newsham KK, Maslen NR, McInnes SJ. British Antarctic Survey, Natural 
  Environment Research Council, Cambridge, UK.

  A sample of the liverwort Cephaloziella varians was collected on 1 January 
  1999 at Rothera Point on the Wright Peninsula, Adelaide Island, western 
  Antarctic Peninsula and was partially dried and then frozen at -80 degree C. 
  The sample was rapidly defrosted to c. 10 degree C after six years and two

months of storage at this temperature. Nematodes, tardigrades and a bdelloid 
rotifer present in the sample were found to have survived. Of the 159 nematodes 
recovered from the sample, 49 (31%) were alive: of the tardigrades and rotifers,
two of 15 (13%) and one of 48 (2%) had survived, respectively.

A Chi-square test showed that there was a significant association between 
nematode taxon and survival: a greater proportion of Coomansus gerlachei 
individuals were alive than of Rhyssocolpus paradoxus. A Chi-square test also 
showed that there was a significant association between phylum and

survival: a significantly greater proportion of nematodes or tardigrades were 
alive than of bdelloid rotifers. We conclude that Antarctic soil metazoans are 
capable of surviving long-term exposure to low sub-zero temperatures and that 
there may be taxon-specific effects of freezing on survival.
PMID: 17256060

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