The molecular machinery that enables life has evolved in water, yet many of the organisms
around us are able to survive even extreme desiccation. Especially remarkable are single …

Mitochondria are the key organelles involved in energy and redox homeostasis, cellular
signaling, and survival. Animal mitochondria are exquisitely sensitive to environmental …

Tardigrades are microscopic animals renowned for their ability to survive extreme
desiccation. Unlike many desiccation-tolerant organisms that accumulate high levels of the …

A sister group of the Arthropoda, the Tardigrada are micrometazoans that occupy a diversity
of niches in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats. Commonly called water bears …

Freeze-drying is a traditional approach of producing desiccated microorganisms. Industrial
mass-production of desiccated microorganisms, however, pursues a more economic drying …

Tardigrades are microscopic animals found worldwide in aquatic as well as terrestrial
ecosystems. They belong to the invertebrate superclade Ecdysozoa, as do the two major …

Given their dormancy capability (long-term resistant stages) and their ability to colonise and
reproduce, microscopic aquatic animals have been suggested having cosmopolitan …

In this review we analyze the dormancy strategies of metazoans inhabiting “hostile to life”
habitats, which have a strong impact on their ecology and in particular on the traits of their …

Bdelloid rotifers are part of the restricted circle of multicellular animals that can withstand a
wide range of genotoxic stresses at any stage of their life cycle. In this study, bdelloid rotifer …

The current state of knowledge about anhydrobiosis in tardigrades is presented. In response
to adverse environmental conditions tardigrades arrest their metabolic activity and after …