Antarctic Worms Have an Amazing Secret For Surviving Deadly Icy Water

21 July 2024
By DAVID NIELD



The three marine worms included in the study. (Buschi et al., Science Advances, 2024)


When you're trying to survive in the freezing wilderness of Antarctica, you need all the help you can get – and it seems that some marine worms stay alive by forming relationships with bacteria that produce a sort of natural antifreeze.

These bacteria end up living inside the worms, and in return for the hospitality, they secrete protein substances to protect against the icy water temperatures.

It's an important step forward in our understanding of the relationships between microbes and the organisms they have a mutually beneficial link to, according to the team behind the study, which was made up of researchers from multiple institutions in Italy.

"Multicellular organisms in the oceans live in close association with their microbiomes, which provide their hosts with key functions including nutrient supply, defense mechanisms, and even additional metabolic pathways," write the researchers in their published paper.

The team traveled to several coastal areas in Antarctica to pick up sediment samples, finding the three worms: polychaetes (Leitoscoloplos geminus, Aphelochaeta palmeri, and Aglaophamus trissophyllus ). The average water temperature was 1 °C below freezing, too cold for these worms to survive on their own.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/antarctic-worms-have-an-amazing-secret-for-surviving-deadly-icy-water