Water bears may be the ultimate borrowers.
The hardy, microscopic animals also known as moss piglets and technically called tardigrades have scavenged about 17.5 percent of their genes from other creatures. The ability to pick up used genes and spare parts from other organisms’ DNA junkyards may allow tardigrades to survive extreme stress, such as desiccation, radiation and even a trip to space and back, researchers report online November 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.