Bugs repair own DNA to survive eons in ice

[Cheba_Mami]

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | 9:31 AM ET
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Scientists say they can at last explain how bacteria stay alive in ice for hundreds of thousands of years.

Bacteria slow down their metabolism to the point where they produce just enough energy to repair their aging DNA, say Australian researcher Mike Bunce of Murdoch University in Perth and his international colleagues. The researchers published their findings Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We're looking at bacteria that have survived in the permafrost for hundreds of thousands of years. These aren't dead; these are viable cells," says Bunce, a molecular biologist.

"If the DNA wasn't being repaired the bacteria would accumulate too much damage to their genome and the cells just would not be viable."

The researchers collected bacteria in soil samples from the Siberian permafrost, put the samples in sealed containers and detected the release of carbon dioxide.

"You can see they are actually respiring," says Bunce. "Samples up to about 600,000 years actually showed viable bacterial populations."

Bugs repair own DNA to survive eons in ice

[Bent_Bladi]

Sub7anAllah.... hal damn bacteria is so strong... if we were like it we'd be indestructable (and dangerously overpopulated)