Abstract

Deinococcus radiodurans has been recognized for its robustness and recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's toughest known bacterium. In essence, the title comes from its ability to survive extreme conditions such as severe drought (desiccation) and radiation tolerance up to 15000 Gy, which is more than 250 times of E. coli and about 3000 times of humans. Due to its high tolerance to all kinds of genotoxic stress, such as desiccation, UV, X-rays, and oxidants, D. radiodurans is a well-suited model organism for microbial radiation resistance studies. The DNA damage-responsive gene expression is an important component of post-stress recovery where the cell shows a great multiplicity of genomes leading to the highly proficient recombinational DNA repair. This article pitches light on the unique properties of D. radiodurans, unfolding its journey so far as well as important molecular discoveries, prospects, and biotechnological applications.

Keywords: Deinococcus radiodurans, radiation resistant bacteria, desiccation, oxidative stress, genome assembly, DNA repair.

Graphical Abstract