An international group of molecular biologists has shed light on the mechanism which enables the cells o the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans to return to life from their ‘clinical death’, the Rudjer Boskovic Institute in Zagreb stated on Wednesday.Four of the eight-member group of scientists are Croatians – the author of the paper, Ksenija Zahradka, and Mirjana Petranovic of the Rudjer Boskovic Institute, and Dea Slade and the group’s head, Miroslav Radman, of University Paris-Descartes.Discovered 50 years ago, the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans is adapted to extreme environments. It can survive on desert sand or on stone surfaces exposed to extreme sun heat where no other organism can survive because of extreme dehydration and ultra-violet radiation.

The bacteria can survive radiation 5,000 times stronger than what is lethal for humans.

In their research Zahradka, Radman and their colleagues explained the molecular mechanism of cell self-repair, which enables the bacteria to survive death.The bacteria has in the course of evolution developed the ability to ‘patch up’ its destroyed DNA in regular order, a mechanism that was a scientific puzzle until now.

Radman and his group had been working on this topic for several years, and the paper with their findings will be published in the scientific magazine “Nature” on October 5.