The team incubated the samples to help the microbes wake up from their old sleep.
Paris:
Scientists have successfully revived microbes that had been sleeping on the sea floor since the age of the dinosaurs, allowing organisms to feed on and even multiply after eons in the depths.
Their research sheds light on the remarkable survival power of some of Earth’s most primitive species, which can exist for tens of millions of years with barely any oxygen or food before resuming life in the laboratory.
A team led by the Japan Agency for Marine and Terrestrial Science and Technology analyzed samples of ancient sediments deposited more than 100 million years ago on the seabed of the South Pacific.
The region is renowned for having far less nutrients in its sediments than normal, making it less than ideal for sustaining life for millennia.
The team incubated the samples to help the microbes wake up from their old sleep.
Surprisingly, they were able to revive almost all microorganisms.
“When I found them, I was initially skeptical as to whether the results stemmed from an error or a failure of the experiment,” said lead author Yuki Morono.
“We now know that there is no age limit for (organisms in) the underwater biosphere,” he told AFP.
Steven D’Hondt, professor at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography and co-author of the study, said the microbes came from the oldest sediment drilled into the seabed.
“In the oldest sediment that we drilled, with the least food, there are still living organisms, and they can wake up, grow and multiply,” he said.
Morono explained that traces of oxygen in the sediments have allowed microbes to stay alive for millions of years without spending virtually any energy.
The energy levels of seabed microbes “are millions of times lower than those of surface microbes,” he said.
Such levels would be far too low to support surface microbes, and Morono said it was a mystery how the seabed organisms managed to survive.
Previous studies have shown how bacteria can live in some of the least hospitable places on the planet, including around underwater vents that lack oxygen.
Morono said the new research, published in the journal Nature Communications, has proven the remarkable resilience of some of the simplest living structures on Earth.
“Unlike us, microbes increase their population by divisions, so they don’t really have the concept of lifespan,” he added.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
