X-Message-Number: 8458
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 22:30:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: brine shrimp biostasis - reply

> Message #8449 Kevin R Spoering <> wrote:
> In the September 1997 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine in the tech
> update section there is a short article about the ability of brine 
> shrimp to survive periods without water by forming a protective cyst 
> around them. The researcher, biologist James Clegg, is attempting to
> isolate the compound the shrimp uses. Supposedly, the shrimp use no
> energy while in this dried state.
>
I have not read this article yet, but would hazard a guess that the
protective substance is the sugar trehalose. As far as I am aware all
animals that can survive being dried via anhydrobiosis use trehalose to
stabilize their state. Some plants do use an alternative sucrose/raffinose
combination instead. Quite a few other carbohydrates can stabilize
biological materials in the dried state, but most of them suffer from
glass transitions (instability) below room temperature (eg sorbitol at -9
C) and so are only useful in conjunction with refrigeration. The problem
with trehalose and sucrose is that they are not readily absorbed by human
tissue and so are are of relatively little interest for either cryonics or
even freeze-drying. 

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