Dec. 27, 2000--
For the first time, Utah
scientists have made a
complicated genetic map of a
bizarre organism which thrives
in the scalding waters of
geothermal wells and volcanoes. What researchers
learn from this creature might open a door for our own
survival against disease and aging. Science Specialist
Ed Yeates reports.
Hard to believe any living thing could survive in these
temperatures. But a small single cell bacteria
appropriately called "fireball furiosus" not only survives
- but literally thrives - in places where everything else
dies.
DR. ROBERT WEISS, DIRECTOR UTAH
GENOME CENTER: "IT PREFERS TO LIVE
AT 100 DEGREES CENTIGRADE - BOILING
WATER. IT WILL ACTUALLY GROW MOST
RAPIDLY UNDER THESE CONDITIONS."
Under a microscope Fireball, with
its delicate hairlike tennacles,
looks rather fragile. But it
continually transfers and swaps
genes at a high rate to become
stronger, more resistant to the
scalding waters.
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST:
"UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SCIENTISTS HERE
AT THE ECCLES INSTITUTE DECIDED IT
WAS TIME TO MAP THIS CREATURE'S
REMARKABLE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE, A
HERITAGE WHICH PROBABLY DATES BACK
300-MILLION YEARS."
DR. ROBERT WEISS: "WE SORT OF SEE A
LANDSCAPE OF EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY."
DR. ROBERT WEISS: "THEY'VE
COMPACTED AND STREAMLINED
THEMSELVES SO THAT THEY KEEP ONLY
THE ESSENTIAL GENES."
DR. LYNN JORDE, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
HUMAN GENETICS: "WHEN WE LEARN HOW
THESE ORGANISMS ADAPT, HOW THEY
REPAIR THEIR DNA, OFTEN THAT'S
GOING TO TEACH US HOW WE CAN REPAIR
OUR OWN DNA."
And repairing DNA could be a fundamental strategy
to defeat cancer and other cellular disorders. It might
help us avoid premature aging.
In more immediate applications, a small amount of
Fireball's enyzmes synethized in laboratories might
produce a new generation of household detergents, or
in larger amounts, a catalyst for cracking oil wells.
DR. ROBERT WEISS: "THE APPLICATION
COULD BE FROM AN ENZYME IN A
DETERGENT WHICH MIGHT JUST TAKE A
PINCH TO AN APPLICATION WHICH MAY
TAKE SEVERAL TRUCKLOADS OF ENZYMES"
Also, since Fireball still likes a dark, scalding
environment void of oxygen, it may give scientists
clues about life on other planets. If there is a liquid
overlying a hot core on the moons of Jupiter, it may
cater to an ancestral lifeform very much like Fireball.
Ed Yeates, Eyewitness News, University of Utah.
Despite its affinity for boiling temperatures, the
remarkable Fireball bacteria can also be refrigerated
and lie in a dormant state for years.
