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Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies pp 121–138Cite as

“Life Without Water”: The Sleeping Chironomid and Other Anhydrobiotic Invertebrates and Their Utilization in Astrobiology

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 24))

Abstract

Anhydrobiosis is a state which allows complex organisms to withstand complete desiccation by effective preservation of biological molecules. Among the metazoans, the anhydrobiotic forms are found only in invertebrates and include representatives of five taxa: insects, crustaceans, rotifers, tardigrades, and nematodes. In dry state, in addition to survival of complete desiccation, these organisms demonstrate high cross-resistance to other abiotic stresses including extreme temperature fluctuations, organic solvents, vacuum, and even ionizing radiation. The anhydrobiotic invertebrates are an attractive model organisms for astrobiology in order to understand limits of resistance of terrestrial life to space environment and evaluation of possibility of interplanetary transfer of life because they have organized tissues, i.e., genetic and biochemical machineries similar to vertebrates. In this chapter, we review the main groups of anhydrobiotic invertebrates, outline aspects of their resistance to excessive abiotic stresses and chronology of utilization this group of organisms in outer space astrobiological experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhydrobiosis Research Unit, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 1-2, Ohwashi, Tsukuba, 305-8634, Japan

    Oleg Gusev & Takashi Okuda

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  1. Oleg Gusev
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  2. Takashi Okuda
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Correspondence to Oleg Gusev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Geophysik, Astrophysik und Meteorologie, Universität Graz, Universitätsplatz 5, Graz, 8010, Austria

    Arnold Hanslmeier

  2. , Physical Geology and Global Cycles, Institute of Applied Geosciences (IAG), Schnittspahnstraße 9, Darmstadt, 64287, Germany

    Stephan Kempe

  3. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Gusev, O., Okuda, T. (2012). “Life Without Water”: The Sleeping Chironomid and Other Anhydrobiotic Invertebrates and Their Utilization in Astrobiology. In: Hanslmeier, A., Kempe, S., Seckbach, J. (eds) Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4966-5_9

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