Through the extension of the frozen southern pole, there is only one animal of pure earth animals: a small insect called MIDGE in Antarctica. This creature, not a flight, with a length of only 0.2 inches, has led to the emergence of existence in one of the most merciless climates in the world for about 30 million years, since its household continents. Divorce from South America.
The researchers have studied this medium for decades, documenting their impressive resistance to harsh conditions. But it was never clear how they endured the cold polar winter. Researchers have now discovered at the Japanese University of Osaka, the physiological mechanism behind them Belgium Antarctica Mastering the cold – it has never been observed in any other type.
Cold temperatures for the insect
Like surface bears, many insects slow their physical operations during the difficult winter months. But for them, stillness comes in distinct flavors. The first, called Quiescency, depends on the environmental sermon – when the temperatures decrease, the metabolism process decreases automatically. The second, called Diapause, is a genetically programmed to start a specific stage in biological development, regardless of what the weather does.
Joyslen and Evaluate Diapause has different advantages, and most types of insects choose one or another. However, Midge in Antarctica is employing both during his two -year life cycle. It is an unprecedented mix. The main author Mizuki Yoshida, a post -PhD researcher at Ohio State University, explains that this helps them to make the most of the short summer.
It is a brilliant strategy. During the first winter season, Midges goes with Joyslen because it “allows the rapid transition between active and inactive lifestyles,” as Yoshida and her colleagues wrote. They wake up whenever temperatures rise above a specific threshold, allowing them to exploit these periods full of nutrition and growth maximum.
Read more: Did you live an old civilization in Antarctica?
It will sleep for development
This works wonderfully for the first year, when everyone wanders alone in search of a meal. But the second winter complicates things: as soon as it ends, an entire generation should come out once, ready to multiply in the few days they left on the ground. If not sync, the species may be spent.
The problem is that thousands of dirt do not necessarily mature at the same rate. If they are all immersed in calm without autumn warning, due to a sudden decrease in temperature, they will be arrested at different stages of development. Then, come in the summer, they were so Show In these different stages, many of them are still sexually immature.
Diapause is required to solve this by ensuring that the population is the whole of them sleeping just before twisting, the final shift from the larva to adults. Each Midge follows its schedule, waiting for the late Blomers for a longer period than their early sleep counterparts for the winter. In this way, they all appear on the same development schedule when the snow melts, and that is followed by glorious reproductive success.
The harsh conditions remain alive
No other insect is known as the switch between calm and the commitment to interruption. But under the appropriate circumstances, it seems to be a logical game plan, given the strange demands of a cold environment in an equal way. In fact, Yoshida suggests that it can be a common strategy for species that live not only in Antarctica, but also in the Arctic and milk regions.
It may take some time until this is confirmed, taking into account that the Osaka team took 6 years to create a way to raise the center in the Antarctic in the laboratory (from the paradoxes of such solid creatures, Yoshida says it is difficult to determine the temperatures they prefer).
At the present time, they stand in their own category – and their ability to adapt is a “testimony”, as the authors said, “to the flexibility of this type in the face of severe challenges.”
Read more: What we taught us is the mysterious about the Antarctica
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Cody Cotier is a contributor to discovering those who love to explore big questions about the universe and our original planet, the nature of awareness, the moral effects of science and more. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media Production from Washington State University.