The DNA of the very weird-looking microscopic invertebrate, the tardigrade or “water bear” has finally been sequenced, with the shocking discovery that up to one sixth of its genome comes from other species.
Is this the reason why they’re the only known Earthling that can survive in Outer Space and withstand temperatures from boiling to nearly absolute zero? One tardigrade was recently resurrected after 30 years of extreme desiccation by Japanese scientists and it went on to give birth to fertile offspring.
It is thought that the creatures’ ability to acquire exogenous genetics occurs during these episodes of near-death extremes and that this ability to adopt foreign genomes, in a process dubbed “horizontal gene transfer” is the secret to its near-immortality.
This has inevitably led scientists to try to speculate on ways to apply this ability to the human genome…
L Sewell,
Your comment is comical; it throws back at you, LOL. Did you know that in English, we put a period (.) if a sentence ends?
Oh brother, look at the thorns in your own eyes before you point out other’s–it does makes you look stupid.
The punctuation errors in this article are just absurd
“This has inevitably led scientists to try to speculate on ways to apply this ability to the human genome…”
No it hasn’t.
Lol if you look carefully at the image of these creatures you will see it’s made of faux suede, Bubble buster lol x
What other species’ DNA was found?
Just like the public serpent?
OK, Mr. Scientist, let’s leave the human genome alone because you don’t have the wisdom or the maturity to completely predict the ramifications!