Tougher than the world's toughest man
With tremendous abilities to withstand drought
Resistant against radiation a thousand times than man can withstand
Able to survive lack of nutrient
Therefore known as a polyextremophile
I PRESENT TO YOU
DEINOCOCCUS RADIODURANS
NICKNAME: CONAN THE BACTERIUM
The name Deinococcus radiodurans derives from the Ancient Greek
δεινός (deinos) and κόκκος (kokkos) meaning "terrible grain/berry" and the Latin radius and durare, meaning "radiation surviving"
Deinococcus radiodurans was discovered by Arthur W Anderson at oregon agriculture experiment station
HOW?
Arthur W Anderson and his coworkers were looking for a way to sterilize canned food with high dose of gamma radiation (which is the strongest out of alpha, beta and gamma rays with ability to go through the human skin and only dense materials like lead can stop them) which was thought that no form of microbial life can escape fury of gamma rays but to the surprise of Arthur W Anderson the can meat spoilt later, puzzled as to why this happened they investigated only to find CANON THE BACTERIUM in the meat.
This nonmotiile bacteria has a diameter of 1.5 to 3.5 µm also known as an obligate chemoheteroorganotroph which means it uses oxygen to get energy from compounds containing organic materials such as meat (oh! no wonder it was found in meat), feces and even in sewage
Some of its secret that makes it able to survive as a polyextremophile are uncommon layering that can be thought of as a lead vest, it has multiple copies of its genome and rapid repair mechanism of damaged DNA
This process starts by
Joining some chromosome fragments via single strand annealing immediately followed by a protein that repairs double -strand breaks through homologous recombination. With these two steps Canon the bacterium can withstand up to 10,000 Gy, where a human can only survive 5 Gy
Deinococuss radiodurans remains a legend
With abilities to survive harsh conditions that tries to bring its existence to an end
Thanks for reading
