IUBio

Cryptobiosis research?

Richard Norman rsnorman at mediaone.net
Thu Dec 7 09:25:53 EST 2000


A search of PubMed (National Library of Medicine
     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed
gave  only 18 hits.  However it turns out that there is a protist
parasite of fish called Cryptobia that causes a disease named
cryptobiosis so many of the citations are inappropriate.

Try
   Gutierrez JC, Martin-Gonzalez A, Matsusaka T.
   Towards a generalized model of encystment (cryptobiosis)
   in ciliates: a review and a hypothesis.
   Biosystems. 1990;24(1):17-24.

My favorite search service, www.google.com,
gave surprisingly little of use except a lot of tardigrade sites.

There must be a better search descriptor.  Or else it is simply
not that active an area of research.


"George Hammond" <ghammond at mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:3A2F4FD6.F343A16 at mediaone.net...
> [Hammond]
> Cryptobiosis created quite a sensation in the 19th century
> when it was first discovered... even such luminaries as
> Paul Broca studied it.
>   Turns out the mechanism is still not well understood
> in the 21st century.
>   Small animals, less than 1-mm in size, composed typically
> of 1,000 cells, but having a brain, nervecords, digestive
> system, feet etc. (nematodes, tardigrades, brine shrimp,
> rotifers etc.) can actually be (naturally or artificially)
> decissitated, frozen, vacuumized, heated etc.. and are
> virtually ruled "dead", sometimes for years, decades or
> centuries... can then be revived by simply  putting them
> in a drop of water!  These are animals, not plants, mind
> you.
>   In the 19th century this was considered proof of the
> "Resurrection" and caused quite a controversy.
>   I am curious as to what present day thinking about
> this phenomena is.... e.g., are these animals actually
> "dead" during cryptobiosis?  I mean, what is the
> definition of "dead"?  Are spores dead?
>   On the technical side, has any in depth research been
> done on the solid state structure of the cells?  for
> instance, is their microtubulin activity during this
> phase?  Any activity at all?
>   does anybody know who the world's leading expert on this
> subject is?  Any recent hi-grade research publications
> on the subject?  Journals dedicated to the subject?
> --
> BE SURE TO VISIT MY WEBSITE, BELOW:
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> George Hammond, M.S. Physics
> Email:    ghammond at mediaone.net
> Website:  http://people.ne.mediaone.net/ghammond/index.html
> -----------------------------------------------------------







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