They are considered the world's toughest animals, capable of living anywhere from the bottom of the ocean to 5,500 metres up a Himalayan mountain.
They can be boiled at temperatures of up to 150 degrees Celsius or frozen to near absolute zero, but still tardigrades, tiny, Muppet-like creatures also known as water bears or moss piglets, just will not die.
They have even been found on the outside of the International Space Station, where the lack of pressure would kill a human in minutes at most.
The big takeaway from the study is that tardigrades have evolved unique genes that allow them to survive drying out.
In addition, the proteins that these genes encode can be used to protect other biological material like bacteria, yeast, and certain enzymes - from desiccation.
These proteins have been named TDPs or 'tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins' in honour of the 1mm-long creatures who evolved to have them.
Previously it had been thought that a type of sugar called trehelose, which is found in other organisms including brine shrimp, was the secret behind the tardigrade's ability to return from the dead after being dried out for up to 10 years.
Following the discovery, reported in the journal Molecular Cell, the scientist put the genes into yeast and bacteria, which then gained the same properties as the tardigrades.
TDPs could be used to protect crops from drought and to preserve medicines without using a refrigerator.
Moss Piglet: Know More- Kingdom: Animalia
- (unranked): Tactopoda
- Phylum: Tardigrades
- Classes: Eutardigrada, Heterotardigrada, Mesotardigrada
