{"id":109236,"date":"2025-08-31T05:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109236\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T05:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:31:11","slug":"the-bright-yellow-worm-that-survives-by-turning-poison-into-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109236\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bright Yellow Worm That Survives by Turning Poison Into \u201cGold\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Alvinellid<\/a>Image of the alvinellid worm, Paralvinella hessleri. A P. hessleri specimen with buccal tentacles extroverted, lateral view. Note that the animal has a bright yellow color. Credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0<\/p>\n

In the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean, a glowing yellow worm has mastered survival in one of the most toxic places on Earth.<\/p>\n

Bathed in arsenic and sulfide from hydrothermal vents, it neutralizes the poisons by transforming them into golden mineral crystals, turning deadly chemicals into glittering protection.<\/p>\n

Poison-Resistant Worm Discovery<\/p>\n

A deep-sea worm that lives around hydrothermal vents has evolved a remarkable survival trick: it combines two deadly substances, arsenic and sulfide, inside its cells to create a far less harmful mineral. The discovery, described by Chaolun Li of the Institute of Oceanology, CAS, China, and his colleagues, was published August 26th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.<\/p>\n

The species, known as Paralvinella hessleri, is the only animal that can withstand the hottest zones of deep-sea vents in the western Pacific. These vents gush out superheated, mineral-rich water containing high concentrations of sulfide and arsenic. Over time, the arsenic accumulates in the worm\u2019s tissues, in some cases accounting for more than 1% of its total body weight.<\/p>\n

\"Paralvinella<\/a>Image of the alvinellid worm, Paralvinella hessleri. Close-up image of P. hessleri worms close to the hydrothermal venting. Credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0
\nLife in Extreme Deep-Sea Vents<\/p>\n

To uncover how P. hessleri survives such a hostile environment, Li\u2019s team used advanced microscopy along with DNA, protein, and chemical analysis. Their work revealed an entirely new detoxification process. The worm traps arsenic particles in its skin cells, where they interact with sulfide from the vent fluids to form clusters of a bright yellow mineral called orpiment.<\/p>\n

This unusual process sheds light on a strategy that researchers describe as \u201cfighting poison with poison.\u201d It allows the worm to live in an environment that should be lethally toxic. Other studies suggest that some closely related worm species and certain snails in the western Pacific also build up large amounts of arsenic and may rely on a similar adaptation.<\/p>\n

\"Alvinellid<\/a>Image of the alvinellid worm, Paralvinella hessleri. A P. hessleri colonized a hydrothermal vent in the Iheya North hydrothermal field. The vent fauna showed apparent variation along the environmental gradients. The areas close to hydrothermal venting were covered with a white mucus mat (P. hessleri colonies). The squad lobsters Shinkaia crosnieri occupied the regions surrounding the P. hessleri colonies. Bathymodiolinae mussels stayed further away. Credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0
\nFighting Poison With Poison<\/p>\n

Coauthor Dr. Hao Wang adds, \u201cThis was my first deep-sea expedition, and I was stunned by what I saw on the ROV monitor\u2014the bright yellow Paralvinella hessleri worms were unlike anything I had ever seen, standing out vividly against the white biofilm and dark hydrothermal vent landscape. It was hard to believe that any animal could survive, let alone thrive, in such an extreme and toxic environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Wang says, \u201cWhat makes this finding even more fascinating is that orpiment\u2014the same toxic, golden mineral produced by this worm\u2014was once prized by medieval and Renaissance painters. It\u2019s a curious convergence of biology and art history, unfolding in the depths of the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Longitudinal<\/a>Microscopy analysis of the yellow granules. Longitudinal section of P. hessleri branchial apparatus stem. Credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0
\nA Strange Link to Art History<\/p>\n

The authors note, \u201cWe were puzzled for a long time by the nature of the yellow intracellular granules, which had a vibrant color and nearly perfect spherical shape. It took us a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy, and Raman analysis to identify them as orpiment minerals\u2014a surprising finding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors conclude, \u201cWe hope that this \u2018fighting poison with poison\u2019 model will encourage scientists to rethink how marine invertebrates interact with and possibly harness toxic elements in their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yellow<\/a>Microscopy analysis of the yellow granules. Cross-section of the branchial apparatus tip. Credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cA deep-sea hydrothermal vent worm detoxifies arsenic and sulfur by intracellular biomineralization of orpiment (As2S3)\u201d by Hao Wang, Lei Cao, Huan Zhang, Zhaoshan Zhong, Li Zhou, Chao Lian, Xiaocheng Wang, Hao Chen, Minxiao Wang, Xin Zhang and Chaolun Li, 26 August 2025,\u00a0PLOS Biology.
DOI: 10.1371\/journal.pbio.3003291<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Funding: This work was supported by grants from Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42476133 to H.W.), Science and Technology Innovation Project of Laoshan Laboratory (Project Number No. LSKJ202203104 to H.W.), National Key RandD Program of China (Project Number 2018YFC0310702 to H.W.), Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42030407 to C.Li), and the NSFC Innovative Group Grant (No. 42221005 to M.X.W.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image of the alvinellid worm, Paralvinella hessleri. A P. hessleri specimen with buccal tentacles extroverted, lateral view. Note…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,61915,61916,19903,25065,66],"class_list":["post-109236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-deep-sea-worms","tag-hydrothermal-sea-vents","tag-marine-biology","tag-plos","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}