Cheating DNA Death: How an Extremophile Repairs Shattered Chromosomes

[Mr. McD]

Fifty years ago, scientists uncovered a microbe capable of withstanding radiation in canned meat that had been bombarded with gamma rays. Named Deinococcus radiodurans--or "strange berry that withstands radiation" --the microorganism can survive doses of radiation up to 500 times that which would kill a human. These doses shatter D. radiodurans's DNA--just as they would in a human--but the microbe can repair its broken DNA and spring back to life within hours, depending on the dose. Researchers in France have finally determined how the most durable of extremophiles manages this trick. "We have discovered the mechanism by which a clinically dead cell resurrects back to life," explains Miroslav Radman of INSERM, France's public biomedical research institution. "This extreme radiation resistance is but a by-product of its selection for resistance to desiccation."



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000CC991-C24A-151A-824A83414B7F0000

[bemildred]

1. I would think this would be handy in other situations. nt