The water bear might look cute under a microscope but it has an interesting habit: it steals DNA from bacteria, fungi, plants, and single-cell organisms.
The tardigrade, moss piglet, or water bear - called that because it does look like a microscopic bear - is the only creature that is known to survive the harshest environments, such as the outer space. To illustrate, it can be frozen in a -80 Celsius environment for ten years and can still move after 20 minutes of thawing. It can be heated five times the boiling water temperature and still come out unscathed.
It can even survive a very strong squeeze. Under pressure, the creature's DNA would just break up into small pieces and just reassemble when it is time for recuperation.
Astronauts have subjected one species of water bear discovered in Antarctica to harsh space environment, and not surprisingly the organisms survived the trip.
Scientists found out that this might be because 17.5 per cent of its genome comes from foreign DNA. That is about a fifth of its total genome. Another microscopic animal, the rotifer, doesn't come close - only eight per cent foreign genome. For other animals, genome stolen from other organisms is only less than one percent.
6,000 foreign genes from the water bear come from bacteria. The process of acquiring the foreign gene is called horizontal gene transfer. The water bear swaps DNA material with another organism, thus 'stealing' the organism's DNA.
Scientists are interested in fully knowing the process. The more they understand what is happening during a horizontal gene transfer, the more they discover about things that are related to evolution, genome stability, and genetic inheritance.
Water bear measures about 0.02 inches in length. Like its mammal counterpart, it moves slowly and clumsily using its eight legs. It is found anywhere in this planet, in water and on land.
