For the first time, researchers report that Arctic algae can hustle along in -15 C – the lowest-temperature movement ever recorded in complex, living cells.
For the first time, researchers report that Arctic algae can hustle along in -15 C – the lowest-temperature movement ever recorded in complex, living cells. This discovery raises new questions about how algal communities regulate the overall health of the Arctic environment.
If you pull an ice core from the outer edges of the Arctic polar cap, you might spot what looks like a faint line of dirt. Those are diatoms – single-celled algae with outer walls made of glass. Their presence in ice isn’t new, but because they seemed trapped and dormant, few bothered to study them.
But new research from Stanford, published Sept. 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed Arctic diatoms aren’t immobile or entombed. They’re not just surviving either – they’re gliding into the record books.
“This is not 1980s-movie cryobiology. The diatoms are as active as we can imagine until temperatures drop all the way down to -15 C, which is super surprising,” said Manu Prakash, associate professor of bioengineering in the Schools of Engineering and Medicine and senior author of the paper.
Read More: Stanford University
Image: Image of an Arctic diatom, showing the actin filaments that run down its middle and enable its skating motion. (Credit: Prakash Lab)
