Cryptobiosis - a peculiar state of biological organization

David Keilin (Proc. Roy. Sec. Lend. B, 150, 1959, 149-191) coined the term 'cryptobiosis' (hidden life) and defined it as 'the state of an organism wh en it shows no visible signs of life and when its metabolic activity become s hardly measurable, or comes reversibly to a standstill.' I consider selec ted aspects of the 300 year history of research on this unusual state of bi ological organization. Clyptobiosis is peculiar in the sense that organisms capable of achieving it exhibit characteristics that differ dramatically f rom those of living ones, yet they are not dead either, so one may propose that cryptobiosis is a unique state of biological organization. I focus chi efly on animal anhydrobiosis, achieved by the reversible loss of almost all the organism's water. The adaptive biochemical and biophysical mechanisms allowing this to take place involve the participation of large concentratio ns of polyhydroxy compounds, chiefly the disaccharides trehalose or sucrose . Stress (heat shock) proteins might also be involved, although the details are poorly understood and seem to be organism-specific. Whether the remova l of molecular oxygen (anoxybiosis) results in the reversible cessation of metabolism in adapted organisms is considered, with the result being 'yes a nd no', depending on how one defines metabolism. Basic research on cryptobi osis has resulted in unpredicted applications that are of substantial benef it to the human condition and a few of these are described briefly. (C) 200 1 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.