Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • This Month
  • Published:

CREATURE COLUMN

Tardigrades

Tardigrades are everywhere. They’re tiny — usually under a millimeter long — and they’re mostly transparent, so they’re easy to miss. But you probably walk by them every day. We’ve been grooming them as emerging models for studying how body forms evolve and how biological materials can survive extreme conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Evolutionary relationships among the ecdysozoan phyla.
Fig. 2: The tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris.

References

  1. Rebecchi, L., Boschetti, C. & Nelson, D. R. Hydrobiologia 847, 2779–2799 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hibshman, J. D., Clegg, J. S. & Goldstein, B. Front. Physiol. 11, 592016 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Aguinaldo, A. M. et al. Nature 387, 489–493 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Goldstein, B. in Emerging Model Systems in Developmental Biology (eds. Goldstein, B. & Srivastava, M.) 173–198 (Academic, 2022).

  5. McNuff, R. Cold Spring Harb. Protoc. https://doi.org/10.1101/pdb.prot102319 (2018).

  6. Blaxter, M., Elsworth, B. & Daub, J. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 271(Suppl. 4), S189–S192 (2004).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Goldstein, B. Cold Spring Harb. Protoc. https://doi.org/10.1101/pdb.emo102301 (2018).

  8. GĄsiorek, P., Stec, D., Morek, W. & Michalczyk, Ł. Zootaxa 4415, 45–75 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Degma, P., Bertolani, R. & Guidetti, R. Actual Checklist of Tardigrada Species https://doi.org/10.25431/11380_1178608 (2021).

  10. Smith, F. W. et al. Curr. Biol. 26, 224–229 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hashimoto, T. et al. Nat. Commun. 7, 12808 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Boothby, T. C. et al. Mol. Cell 65, 975–984.e5 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Crilly, C. J., Brom, J. A., Warmuth, O., Esterly, H. J. & Pielak, G. J. Protein Sci. 31, 396–406 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hesgrove, C. & Boothby, T. C. Cell Commun. Signal. 18, 178 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Arakawa, K. Annu. Rev. Anim. Biosci. 10, 17–37 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Tenlen, J. R., McCaskill, S. & Goldstein, B. Dev. Genes Evol. 223, 171–181 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kumagai, H., Kondo, K. & Kunieda, T. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2022.07.060 (2022).

  18. Goldstein, B. & Srivastava, M. (eds.) Emerging Model Systems in Developmental Biology (Academic, 2022).

  19. Laumer, C. E. et al. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 286, 20190831 (2019).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank current and former members of my lab, and colleagues, for their work and their intellectual contributions, and the National Science Foundation including current NSF grant IOS 2028860 for long-term support for our research on tardigrades.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bob Goldstein.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Goldstein, B. Tardigrades. Nat Methods 19, 904–905 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-022-01573-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-022-01573-5

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing