Chernobyl worms have special superpower: Study
(WJW) – A new study has found worms collected in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have a special type of superpower.
The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant transformed the area around it into the most radioactive landscape on Earth, researchers say.
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According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the blast caused mutations in plants and animals.
After the explosion, leaves changed shape and some animals were born with physical deformities.
However, researchers at New York University found that chronic radiation hasn’t harmed one creature.
Microscopic worms living there today have been found to be exceptionally resilient to radiation, according to the study.
NYU researchers collected worms in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
They found the genomes of the microscopic worms undamaged.
In recent years, some animals living in the area have been found to be physically and genetically different from the same creatures living outside of the zone.
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This study focused on 15 worms of a nematode species called Oscheius tipulae, which has been used in genetic and evolutionary studies, according to researchers.
The researchers were surprised to find that, using several different analyses, they could not detect a signature of radiation damage on the genomes of the worms from Chernobyl.
“This doesn’t mean that Chernobyl is safe—it more likely means that nematodes are really resilient animals and can withstand extreme conditions,” said Sophia Tintori, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Biology at NYU and the first author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“We also don’t know how long each of the worms we collected was in the Zone, so we can’t be sure exactly what level of exposure each worm and its ancestors received over the past four decades.”
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Can it help humans? Researchers say it could be important in the fight against cancer.
“Now that we know which strains of O. tipulae are more sensitive or more tolerant to DNA damage, we can use these strains to study why different individuals are more likely than others to suffer the effects of carcinogens,” said Tintori.
That would give researchers more information about why some humans are genetically predisposed to cancer.
Click here to read the full study.
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