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| Deinococcus radiodurans | ||||||||||||||
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| Deinococcus radiodurans |
Deinococcus radiodurans is an extremophile, and is the most radiation-resistant organism known. It can survive 3000 times the amount of radiation it would take to kill a human. It can survive heat, cold, vacuum, and acid. Using genetic engineering deinococcus has been given the abilities to consume and digest solvents and heavy metals, even in a highly radioactive site. It accomplishes its resistence to radiation by having multiple copies of its genome and rapid DNA repair mechanisms. As a consequence of its hardiness it has been nicknamed Conan the Bacterium after Conan the Barbarian; its official name literally means "strange berry that withstands radiation".
D. radiodurans was discovered in 1956 at the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in Corvallis, Oregon. The term deinobacter has been replaced by deinococcus based on evaluation of ribosomal rna sequences. The class deinococcus contains only one order, one family, one genus, and 8 species.