Fig 1.
Comparison between hydrated and anhydrobiotic Ram.
varieornatus: (a-d) Confocal microscopy images with DIC (a and c) and DAPI (b and d) staining. (e-f) Statistics on body sizes and nucleus numbers. (e) Error bars indicate the standard deviation and the star indicates a significant difference (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, p = 0.048; α = 0.05). (f) Error bars indicate the standard deviation.
Fig 2.
Ultrastructures of Ram. varieornatus under the hydrated and tun states.
(a, b) Overview of a body part. (c, d) Ultrastructure of epidermal cells. (e, f) Ultrastructure of muscle cells. (g, h) Ultrastructure of digestive cells. (i, j) Extracellular space overview. Cut: cuticle, DC: digestive cell, EC: epidermal cell, MC: muscle cell, m: mitochondria, mv: microvilli, p: pigment, ecs: extracellular space.
Fig 3.
Comparison of mitochondria in hydrated and anhydrobiotic Ram. varieornatus cells.
(a-d) Transmission electron microscopy images. (e) Mean mitochondrial size. The error bars indicate the standard deviation, and the stars indicate significant differences (Student’s t-test, α = 0.05). Table 1 shows the complete statistical results. (f, g) Histogram of the mitochondrial size frequencies of hydrated tardigrades (f) and desiccated tardigrades (g). m: mitochondria.
Table 1.
Statistical results of the mitochondrial sizes (nm) in cells from Ram. varieornatus in four stages: tuns (A), after 5 minutes of rehydration (B), after 15 minutes of rehydration (C) and hydrated (D).
Fig 4.
Ultrastructure of Ram. varieornatus after 5 and 15 minutes of rehydration.
(a, b) Ultrastructure of epidermal cells. (c, d) Ultrastructure of muscle cells. (e, f) Ultrastructure of digestive cells. (g, h) Extracellular space overview. cut: cuticle, DC: digestive cell, EC: epidermal cell, MC: muscle cell, m: mitochondria, mv: microvilli, p: pigment, ecs: extracellular space.
Fig 5.
Comparison of mitochondria from Ram. varieornatus in four stages: Tuns, after 5 minutes of rehydration, after 15 minutes of rehydration and hydrated.
(a–d) Transmission electron microscopy images. Scale bar a-d = 500 nm. (e) Mean mitochondrial sizes. The error bars indicate the standard error of the mean. <*> indicates a significant difference at p < 0.05 (Student’s t-test, α = 0.05). <***> indicates a significant difference at p < 0.0001 (Student’s t-test, α = 0.05). See Table 1 for all of the statistical results. m: mitochondria.
Fig 6.
Graphical representation of the ultrastructural divergences between Ram. varieornatus and Hys. exemplaris during the dehydration and anhydrobiote formation processes.
Abstract design: Laurence Meslin CNRS, ISEM 2023.