Boris Hespeels, Diego Fontaneto, Valérie Cornet, Sébastien Penninckx, Jérémy Berthe, Lucie Bruneau, James W Larrick, Eloïse Rapport, Jérémie Bailly, Nicolas Debortoli, Nataliia Iakovenko, Karel Janko, Anne-Catherine Heuskin, Stéphane Lucas, Bernard Hallet, Karine Van Doninck
BACKGROUND: Bdelloid rotifers are micro-invertebrates distributed worldwide, from temperate latitudes to the most extreme areas of the planet like Antarctica or the Atacama Desert. They have colonized any habitat where liquid water is temporarily available, including terrestrial environments such as soils, mosses, and lichens, tolerating desiccation and other types of stress such as high doses of ionizing radiation (IR). It was hypothesized that bdelloid desiccation and radiation resistance may be attributed to their potential ability to repair DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs)...
April 7, 2023: BMC Biology