Fig 1.
Mean survival rate after different number of repeated desiccations.
Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Significant differences at P<0.05 (*), P<0.01 (**) and P<0.001 (***) are indicated.
Fig 2.
Mean proportion of animals that were in semi-tun and extended states after each respective desiccation cycle.
Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Horizontal bars indicating significances refer to the semi-tun data. Significance levels of P<0.05 (*) and P<0.001 (***) are indicated.
Fig 3.
Mean proportion of animals with dark gut content after each respective desiccation cycle.
Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Significant differences at P<0.05 (*) and P<0.01 (**) are indicated.
Fig 4.
Mean number of storage cells and storage cell volume (μm3) in tardigrades exposed to different number of desiccation cycles.
Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Horizontal bars indicating significances refer to the storage cell number data. Significant differences at P<0.05 (*) and P<0.01 (**) are indicated.
Table 1.
Proportion of specimens with mitotic storage cells and calculated mitotic index (no. mitotic cells/total number of cells per individual) for different desiccation cycle groups.
Fig 5.
Percentage surviving tardigrades after repeated number of desiccations estimated in the current study and in that reported by Baumann [18].
Note that survival data from the current study were calculated based on estimated rates of survival for each desiccation cycle, not on the original number of animals, since 10 surviving animals were removed for analysis after each desiccation cycle. Initial number of animals: 400 in this study, 15 in Baumann´s study [18]. See main text for more detailed explanation.