The best genome scientists to map the DNA sequence of the winner of the Annortebrato 2025 | Invertebrates

“We are following the” Invertebrate of the Year “series with suspended breath”, started the E -mail that arrived in the guardian’s incoming mail last week.

Mark Blaxter leads the Sanger Institute“S tree of life program, a project that seizes the DNA of the species to understand the diversity and origins of life on Earth. But even more important, Blaxter and its team are superfans of our invertebrate of the Year competition and have offered to map the sequence of the genome of anyone who wins this year.

“The sequence of the genome of each species is a kind of time machine: we can look back through the evolutionary history to understand its origins and also do some time to say how the species goes in values ​​in the climatic emergency,” he said. “Each genome includes incredibly detailed intuitions on the” special powers “of the species, increasing our depth of understanding.

“As part of our daily work, we are collecting interesting species in sequence,” Blaxter said to The Guardian. “And those we choose are often interesting for the same reasons why they are appointed for the invertebrates of the year.” They have superpowers, They are beautifulThey have a crazy life cycle.

Blaxter’s team, who voted for the 2024 winner, the common earthwormhe has already sequeniated many creatures on the 2025 list. The little one Tardigrade? Done. THE flies of bees with dark edgesA twerking impostor that drops sticky eggs bombs? Done. The evolutionary scandal that is the Common rotifer He also put his genetic code bare. So he has a tight relative of the pice bites of the languageA candidate whose name only begins to describe the horror of his fuss.

The selected Tardigrado, Milnesio Tardigradum, It is the size of a grain of dust. When it has been accumulated completely it dries, but its cells and DNA are kept. In this reduced “tun” state, the animal does not need food or water and can bear upsetting radiation for DNA. Rehydrate the ball and the creature continues as before. “It is incredible to look at,” says Blaxter, who witnessed the transformation on a microscope slide. “He expands, returns to life and starts crawling. It only takes about 25 minutes.”

Tardigrade’s secret is written in its genes, but there is more reasons to read the code than curiosity. Understanding the process could help researchers make other biological materials waterproof with extreme conditions. Think of vaccines that do not require refrigeration, astronauts who are protected against space radiation. “There are biotechnological applications hidden within all these small organisms that we believe will be really precious while we move to a post-oil economy and we start thinking of taking the planet better,” said Blaxter.

We may not want to emulate all the traits of the nominated. The selected roller, a microscopic aquatic animal, went without sex for tens of millions of years. Instead of showing sympathy, the researchers nicknamed them a “evolutionary scandal”. Without sex to exchange genes, a species can expect that harmful mutations accumulate, making them more sick and sick until they extend. The roller, however, did not get the reminder: life finds a way.

Much more is buried in the genomes of these creatures. The Tree of Life program aims to generate reference genomes for the approximately 70,000 species found in Great Britain and Ireland and the waters around. Armed with sequences, researchers can estimate the dimensions of the animal population to the last ice age. They can reveal the great events that the species have lived and see when their ancestors separated from other lignages. They can evaluate how different today’s populations are and therefore how vulnerable to the multitude of pressure they face are. All this informs the work to preserve biodiversity in the face of climatic emergency.

Invertebrates do not always get loved love and some can hardly be said to help yourself. But Blaxter wants people to take a closer look. “I spend a lot of time on his knees with a hand lens looking at small wiggly things and they are all very beautiful, they are all in the same way and individually incredible,” he says. “They are essential for the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend and have a lot to teach us on how to survive this planet”.