Acta Scientific Medical Sciences (ASMS)(ISSN: 2582-0931)

Research Article Volume 5 Issue 11

Study on Prevalence of Tardigrades in Tamil Nadu and Species Identification Using Pan-PCR

Abirami B1, Ajith Nayagam B1, Karthick L1 Sai Ramesh A1 and Naveen Kumar V2*

1Department of Biotechnology, Vel Tech High Tech Dr. Rangarajan Dr. Sakunthala Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
2Immugenix Biosciences, Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

*Corresponding Author: Naveen Kumar V, Immugenix Biosciences, Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Received: August 20, 2021; Published: October 15, 2021

×

Abstract

Tardigrades (water bears) are organisms, capable of surviving in very extreme conditions. These organisms are known to be ubiquitous and are mostly studied for their extremotolerant properties. Many on-going researches in other countries have shown that some of the extremotolerant properties of Tardigrades can be exploited for medical and experimental applications. But it was also observed that, these properties differed in different species of Tardigrades and also depended on their geographical location. In previous geological studies it was observed that the presence of Tardigrades in tropical region was minimal which contradicted their well-known ubiquitous nature. Therefore, in this paper, we examined the prevalence of Tardigrades in some tropical areas of Tamil Nadu and distribution of different species along with studying their different temperature toleration capacity. Thirteen out of twenty-two moss samples collected from different region of Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli, were screened positive for the presence of Tardigrades. Based on the morphological identification of claws and buccal pharyngeal apparatus, the isolated Tardigrades were distinguished as three different species. Most of the species was distinguished as Milnesium sp., and others as Murrayon sp. and Macrobiotus sp. using light and phase contrast (PC) microscopy. The phenotypically identified species were genotypically characterized as Milnesium tardigradum, Macrobiotus sapiens and Paramacrobiotus richtersi respectively using 18S rRNA sequencing. The isolated species were reared in 2% agarose plates, in order to explore their reproducing ability in fluctuating room temperature. Their survival ability to different temperatures were tested to observe their toleration limit in terms of their capacity to revive after exposure. From the above experiments, it was observed that Milnesium tardigradum displayed higher tolerance to all the different conditions exposed and was concluded that Milnesium tardigradum was highly tolerant when compared to Macrobiotus sapiens.

Keywords: Milnesium tardigradum; Paramacrobiotus richtersi; Macrobiotus sapiens; Extremotolerant; Cryptobiosis; Tun State; 18S rRNA Sequencing

×

References

  1. Mathews GB. “Tardigrada from North America”. The University of Notre Dame 3 (1938): 619-627.
  2. Guidetti R and Bertolani R. “Tardigrade taxonomy: an updated check list of the taxa and a list of characters used in their identification”. Zootaxa 1 (2005): 1-46.
  3. Degma P., et al. “Actual Checklist of Tardigrada species”. (2009-2018, 34th Edition: 30-06-2018) R (2009-2018).
  4. Higgins PR. “Life History of Macrobiotus islandicus Richters withnotes on Other Tardigrades from Colordo”. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society2 (1959): 137-154.
  5. Nelson DR. “Current status of the Tardigrada: Evolution and Ecology”. Integrative and Comparative Biology3 (2002): 652-659.
  6. Gabriel NW., et al. “The tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini, a new model for studying the evolution of development”. Developmental Biology 2 (2007): 545-559.
  7. Rebecchi L., et al. “Resistance of the anhydrobiotic eutardigrade Paramacrobiotus richtersi to space flight (LIFE-TARSE mission on FOTON-M3)”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Researchs1 (2011): 98-103.
  8. Nelson DR., et al. “Chapter 17: Phylum Tardigrada”. In James, H., Thorp, D. and Christopher, Rogers. (Ed.), Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates (Fourth Edition). NY: Ecology and General Biology (2015): 347-380.
  9. Savic GA., et al. “New multivariate image analysis method for detection of differences in chemical and structural composition of chitin structures in tardigrade feeding apparatuses”. Zoomorphology1 (2016): 43-50.
  10. Beltran-Pardo AE., et al. “Sequence analysis of the DNA- repair gene rad 51 in the tardifrades Milnesium tardigradum, Hypsibius dujardini and Macrobiotus cf. harmsworthi. Journal of Limnology 72.1s (2013): e10.
  11. Horikawa DD., et al. “Analysis of DNA Repair and Protection in the Tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus and Hypsibius dujardini after Exposure to UVC Radiation”. PLOS ONE6 (2013): e64793.
  12. Jonsson I., et al. “Tolerance to Gamma-Irradiation in eggs of the Tardigrade Richtersius coronifer depends on stage of development”. Journal of Limnologys1 (2013): 73-79.
  13. Hashimoto T., et al. “Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein”. Nature Communications 7 (2016): 12808.
  14. Alterio T and Rebecchi L. “Rearing Tardigrades: Results and Problems”. Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology 3-4 (2001): 217-221.
  15. Schill OR., et al. “Food of tardigrades: a case study to understand food choice, intake and digestion”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research s1 (2011): 66-70.
  16. Rebecchi L., et al. “Dynamics of long-term anhydrobiotic survival of lichen-dwelling tardigrades”. Hydrobiologia 1 (2006): 23-30.
  17. Jorgensen A., et al. “A molecular study of the tardigrade Echiniscus testudo (Echiniscidae) reveals low DNA sequence diversity over a large geographical area”. Journal of Limnology 1 (2007): 77-83.
  18. Guidetti R., et al. “On dormancy strategies in tardigrades”. Journal of Insect Physiology 5 (2011): 567-576.
  19. Lundström J and Svensson L. “The effect of dehydration rates on anhydrobiotic survival and trehalose levels in tardigrades (Dissertation)”. Tsunami 3 (2006).
  20. Boothby CT., et al. “Tardigrades use instrinsically disordered proteins to survive desiccation”. Molecular Cell 6 (2017): 975-984.
  21. Jonsson KI. “Causes and consequences of excess resistance in cryptobiotic Metazoans”. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 4 (2003): 429-435.
  22. Förster F., et al. “Tardigrade workbench: comparing stress-related proteins, sequence-similar and functional protein clusters as well as RNA elements in tardigrades”. BMC Genomics 10 (2009): e469.
  23. Schokraie E., et al. “Investigating heat shock proteins of tardigrades in active versus anhydrobiotic state using shotgun proteomics”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research s1 (2011): 111-119.
  24. Jonsson KI., et al. “Tardigrades survive exposure to space in low Earth orbit”. Current Biology17 (2008): R729-R731.
  25. Higgins PR and Crowe HJ. “The Revival of Macrobiotus areolatus Murray (Tardigrada) from the Cryptobiotic State”. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society3 (1967): 286-294.
  26. Koutsovoulos G., et al. “No evidence for the extensive horizontal gene transfer in the genome of the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini. PNAS 18 (2016): 5053-5058.
  27. Guidetti R and Møbjerg N. “Environmental Adaptations: Encystment and Cyclomorphosis”. In: Schill R. (eds) Water Bears: The Biology of Tardigrades”. Zoological Monographs 2, Springer, Cham (2018): 249-271.
  28. Guidetti R., et al. “Distribution of calicium and chitin in the tardigrade feeding apparatus in relation to its function and morphology”. Integrative and Comparative Biology 2 (2015): 241-252.
  29. Halberg KA., et al. “Cyclomorphosis in Tardigrada: adaptation to environmental constraints”. The Journal of Experimental Biology 212 (2009): 2803- 2811.
  30. Guidetti R. “Two new species of Macrobiotidae (Tardigrada: Eutardigrada) from the United States of America, and some taxonomic consideration of the genus Murrayon. Proceeding of the Biological Society of Washington 3 (1998): 663-673.
  31. Kaczmarek L., et al. “Ecological factors determining Tardigrada distribution in Costa Rica”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research1 (2010): 78-83.
  32. Cesari M., et al. “DNA Barcoding in Tardigrada: the first case study on Macrobiotus macrocalix Bertolani and Rebecchi 1993 (Eutardigrada, Macrobiotidae)”. Molecular Ecology Resources3 (2009): 699-706.
  33. Beltran-Pardo AE., et al. “Tolerance to Gamma radiation in the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini from embryo to adult correlate inversely with cellular proliferation”. PLOS ONE 7 (2015): e0133658.
  34. Pilato G. “Structure, itraspecific variability and systematic value of the buccal armature of Eutardigrades”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 1 (1972): 65-78.
  35. Welnicz W., et al. “ITS-2 and 18S rRNA data from Macrobiotus polonicus and Milnesium tardigradum (Eutardigrada, Tardigrada)”. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Researchs1 (2011): 34-39.
×

Citation

Citation: Naveen Kumar V., et al. “Study on Prevalence of Tardigrades in Tamil Nadu and Species Identification Using Pan-PCR”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 5.11 (2021): 42-52.




Metrics

Acceptance rate30%
Acceptance to publication20-30 days
Impact Factor1.403

Indexed In





Contact US