Preserving life of moss Ptychomitrium under very high pressure Original Research Article

The experiment on the search for life under very high pressure done on small animal, tardigrade, has been extended to the moss Ptychomitrium. Several spore placentas of the moss Ptychomitrium were sealed in a small Teflon capsule together with fluorinate as liquid pressure medium. The capsule was put in the center of a pyrophillite cube. This cube was compressed by six tungsten–carbide second-stage anvils with a front edge length of 4.0 mm. These anvils were compressed by a first stage, 250 ton press. It was proven that 80–90% of the spores were alive and germinated after being exposed to the maximum pressure of 7.5 GPa for up to 48 h. Furthermore, a relatively high germination rate of about 35% was retained even after exposure to 7.5 GPa for 6 days. The pressure tolerance of moss is found to be much stronger than tardigrades.