Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: troyer@ccb.ucsf.edu (John Troyer) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: biostasis in sugar Message-ID: Date: 16 Jun 89 02:40:55 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 22 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu here's something for all you biostasis people. I heard this on a BBC science program, so I have no references, etc. Trehalose, a disaccharide, seems to be involved in the naturally- occurring biostasis in such organisms as yeast and rotifers. The sugar, having polar groups, takes the place of structural water molecules in hydrogen bonding to macromolecules (proteins, dna) as the water is removed and the organism dries up. All of the biomolecules are preserved in this glass. When water comes in again, the sugar "dissolves" and everything starts running. The hard part is delivering the trehalose (a polar molecule) across cell membranes in organisms that don't do it naturally. I honestly don't remember how they're proposing to do this. In any case, this seems like a much more gentle way of making a glass for biostasis than Drexler's glyceraldehyde in EOC. Maybe we'll have freeze-dried mummies instead of corpsicles? troyer@ccb.ucsf.edu