cryptobiosis
thumb|upright=1.35|When dried, terrestrial tardigrades draw in their legs and go into a cryptobiotic 'tun' state. They revive quickly when re-wetted.
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Forms
- Anhydrobiosis
- Anoxybiosis
- Chemobiosis
- Cryobiosis
- Osmobiosis
- Examples
- See also
- References
- Further reading
thumb|upright=1.35|When dried, terrestrial tardigrades draw in their legs and go into a cryptobiotic 'tun' state. They revive quickly when re-wetted.
Cryptobiosis or anabiosis is a metabolic state in extremophilic organisms in response to adverse environmental conditions such as desiccation, freezing, and oxygen deficiency. In the cryptobiotic state, all measurable metabolic processes stop, preventing reproduction, development, and repair. When environmental conditions return to being hospitable, the organism will return to its metabolic state of life as it was prior to cryptobiosis.