How do neurons keep working at the thermal limit of animal life?
Our new chromosome-scale genome of the Pompeii worm starts to answer. It has a conservative genome but a finely tuned proteome: expanded globins, anaerobic enzymes, and new sulfur chemistry. These let the worm thrive while grazing on bacteria in hot, dark, oxygen-starved vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
This new proteome now offers thermostable tools for biochemistry and a window into physiology at extremes.
This amazing project was led by Sami EL HILALI and Richard Copley, with contributions from the Robinson, Hoelz, Martín-Durán, and Jollivet groups.
Read the paper in BMC Biology https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02369-7
Our new chromosome-scale genome of the Pompeii worm starts to answer. It has a conservative genome but a finely tuned proteome: expanded globins, anaerobic enzymes, and new sulfur chemistry. These let the worm thrive while grazing on bacteria in hot, dark, oxygen-starved vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
This new proteome now offers thermostable tools for biochemistry and a window into physiology at extremes.
This amazing project was led by Sami EL HILALI and Richard Copley, with contributions from the Robinson, Hoelz, Martín-Durán, and Jollivet groups.
Read the paper in BMC Biology https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02369-7
RSS Feed