Extreme resistance of bdelloid rotifers to ionizing radiation

Rotifers of class Bdelloidea are common invertebrate animals with highly unusual characteristics, including apparently obligate asexuality, the ability to resume reproduction after desiccation at any life stage, and a paucity of transposable genetic elements of types not prone to horizontal transmis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2008-04, Vol.105 (13), p.5139-5144
Main Authors: Gladyshev, Eugene, Meselson, Matthew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adineta vaga
Animal reproduction
Animals
Bacteria
Bdelloidea
Behavior, Animal
Biological Sciences
Daughters
Deinococcus radiodurans
DNA
DNA Breaks
DNA repair
Dose response relationship
Egg fertility
Eggs
Euchlanis dilatata
Fecundity
Genetics
Invertebrates
Monogononta
Philodina roseola
Radiation
Radiation damage
Radiation dosage
Radiation tolerance
Radiation, Ionizing
Reproduction - radiation effects
Rotifera
Rotifera - genetics
Rotifera - radiation effects
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Summary:Rotifers of class Bdelloidea are common invertebrate animals with highly unusual characteristics, including apparently obligate asexuality, the ability to resume reproduction after desiccation at any life stage, and a paucity of transposable genetic elements of types not prone to horizontal transmission. We find that bdelloids are also extraordinarily resistant to ionizing radiation (IR). Reproduction of the bdelloids Adineta vaga and Philodina roseola is much more resistant to IR than that of Euchlanis dilatata, a rotifer belonging to the desiccation-intolerant and facultatively sexual class Monogononta, and all other animals for which we have found relevant data. By analogy with the desiccation- and radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, we suggest that the extraordinary radiation resistance of bdelloid rotifers is a consequence of their evolutionary adaptation to survive episodes of desiccation encountered in their characteristic habitats and that the damage incurred in such episodes includes DNA breakage that is repaired upon rehydration. Such breakage and repair may have maintained bdelloid chromosomes as colinear pairs and kept the load of transposable genetic elements low and may also have contributed to the success of bdelloid rotifers in avoiding the early extinction suffered by most asexuals.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0800966105