Morphological mechanism allowing a parasitic leech, Ozobranchus jantseanus (Rhynchobdellida: Ozobranchidae), to survive in ultra-low temperatures

Ozobranchus jantseanus is the largest metazoan known to survive in liquid nitrogen without pretreatment to date, however, the mechanism underlying this tolerance remains unclear. In this study, the first analyses of histological and morphological changes in normal, frozen, and dehydrated states were performed. Adults survived after direct placement in liquid nitrogen for 96 h, with a survival rate of approximately 86.7%. The leech could withstand rapid desiccation and its survival rate after rehydration was 100% when its water loss was below about 84.8%. After freezing, desiccation, and ethanol dehydration, the leech immediately formed a hemispherical shape. Particularly during drying, obvious transparent glass-like substance was observed on surface. Scanning electron microscopy revealed many pores on the surface of the posterior sucker, creating a sponge-like structure, which may help to rapidly expel water, and a hemispherical shape may protect the internal organs by contraction and folding reconstruction in the anterior-posterior direction. A substantial amount of mucopolysaccharides on the surface and acid cells and collagen fibers in the body, all of which contained substantial polysaccharides, may play a key protective role during freezing. Our results indicate that the resistance of leeches to ultra-low temperatures can be explained by cryoprotective dehydration/vitrification strategies.

Lea protein expression during cold-induced dehydration in the Arctic collembola Megaphorura arctica

The Arctic springtail Megaphorura arctica (Tullberg, 1876) employs a strategy known as cryoprotective dehydration to survive winter temperatures as low as -25?C. During cryoprotective dehydration, water is lost from the animal to ice in its surroundings as a result of the difference in vapour pressure between the animal?s supercooled body fluids and ice (Worland et al., 1998; Holmstrup and Somme, 1998). This mechanism ensures that as the habitat temperature falls, the concentration of solutes remains high enough to prevent freezing (Holmstrup et al., 2002). In M. arctica, accumulation of trehalose, a cryo/anhydro protectant, occurs in parallel with dehydration. Recent studies have identified a number of genes and cellular processes involved in cryoprotective dehydration in M. arctica (Clark et al., 2007; Clark et al., 2009; Purac et al., 2011). One of them includes late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins. This study, together with that of Bahrndorff et al. (2008), suggests that LEA proteins may be involved in protective dehydration in this species.