Friday, October 06, 2006

Lazarus Microbe's Immortality Secret Revealed





Although the basic mechanism behind Deinococcus' hardiness is understood, many mysteries still remain. For one, proteins are needed for DNA repair and synthesis, but proteins can be damaged by radiation, too. It's one thing to piece together a broken genome, but how does Deinococcus do it with broken tools?

"That's still a mystery," Radman told LiveScience. "How, after months of desiccation and burning from UV sunlight in the desert, is there still sufficient protein activity to start reconstituting DNA? We don't know."

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