Richa Prakash, Central University of Punjab
Bryum bharatiensis, the first and only plant species discovered in the history of 40 years of the Indian Antarctic Mission marked its beginning in 1981. Dr. Felix Bast, a polar and marine biologist, and head of the Department of Botany at the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda added this feather in Bharat’s cap. He was an expedition scientist in Indian Antarctic Mission 2016-17 and found these fascinating green plants on rocks near Bharati, the Indian Antarctic station at Larseman Hills in East Antarctica.
The new species, Bryum bharatiensis got its name as a tribute to Goddess Saraswati (Bharati) and eponymous station Bharati. All the analysis was performed in the lab of Dr. Bast at CU Punjab assisted by his Ph.D. student, Mr. Wahid Ul Rehman, and collaborator Dr. Kirti Gupta, head of the Department of Botany at DAV College Bathinda. The analysis was performed combining morphology-based traditional techniques and DNA Sequence-based modern tools to confirm that the plant is a new undiscovered species.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations
The above-mentioned statement came into reality for Dr. Bast and India with this discovery with a very long wait of 40 years. “To be a part of the six months arduous National Antarctic Mission itself is a huge privilege. And, the discovery, as a result, is very satisfying indeed at a personal level”, said Dr Bast. The mission started with ice and snow acclimatization training at a high-altitude Himalayan station undertaken by the team with ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police), at Auli and Mana in Uttarakhand. The voyage took off from Cape Town, South Africa in Russian Icebreaker ship “m/v Ivan Papanin.”
The journey to Indian Antarctic Station, Bharati was not easy, it was full of risks and adventures due to the most extreme ocean conditions. The voyage crossed infamous southern latitudes roaring 40s, furious 50s, and shrieking or screaming 60s to sail 4500 km southward taking 20 days to reach the destination. Aren’t these terms fascinating? Actually, they are not. The Roaring 40s, Furious 50s, and Shrieking or Screaming 60s are winds that batter the Southern Ocean, on the periphery of Antarctica. Their names are based on the latitudes at which they occur and the intensity of the ferocious winds experienced there. These are strong westerly winds that flow from west to east in the Earth’s middle latitude between 30-600 and originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes towards the poles.
According to Dr. Bast, “the conditions were not easy and comfortable, and we couldn’t even eat. We used to have soups only.” This wasn’t all, looking for plants wasn’t easy in the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, 99% of which is covered by ice. The three available modes of transportation were Helicopters, Snow scooters known as Skidoo, and Pistenbully. “Helicopter used to drop us on different points and then we used to walk in ice which used to be very challenging and risky”, said Dr. Bast. He added that the evidence of global warming in Antarctica was alarming. The scenes as mentioned by Dr. Bast included melting glaciers, crevasse-infested ice sheets, and changing biodiversity patterns. There is more greenery in Antarctica now and the temperate plants that couldn’t survive in this frozen continent previously can be seen everywhere. They had to wear UV-Protective gears to protect them from high levels of UV radiation exposure due to exposure to the extended duration of sunlight and the ozone hole in Antarctica as their voyage took place in summers.
The expedition team sailed westward to India’s another and the oldest Antarctic station, Maitri. The team also revealed two new taxonomic records for locating the moss Bryoerythrophyllum recurvirostrum from Larsemann Hills and the moss Coscinodon lawianus from Schirmacher Oasis near station Maitri, for the first time. The scientist said that it is a mystery how these plants survive in extreme winters when there is no sun only darkness and the temperature could be as low as -760C. These mosses likely dry up to a dormant stage during the winters as these are extremophiles. When the summer starts and the snow melts, the moss soaks up water to come back to life from the dormant stage. These mosses are also hosts to another extremophile, Tardigrades (water bear or moss piglet), considered as the toughest animals on Earth. This discovery of Bryum bharatiensis marked the sixth species discovery from the research group of Dr. Bast including five species of seaweeds from Indian coasts.
Are Impact Factors of journals relevant for cutting-edge research?
Well, that seems irrelevant with this discovery. The new Antarctic moss discovery highlights why journal impact factors are not relevant for cutting-edge research. The key findings of this Antarctic moss discovery have been accepted to be published in the Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity (Elsevier) having an impact factor of 0.8, which is comparatively low. Yet, the discovery has been featured in global media including BBC and The Independent, being truly international, groundbreaking, and original.
Generally, the quality of journals is judged by looking at their Impact Factors, a scientometric index to measure the frequency with which the average articles in a particular journal have been cited in a particular period. However, San Fransisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) signed in 2013 intending to stop the general practice of correlating the journal impact factor to the quality of research. Don’t judge the book by its cover.
Acknowledgment:
The article has been written based on an electronic conversation between the author, Richa Prakash, and Dr. Felix Bast.
BIOXONE BIOSCIENCES would like to extend its sincere gratitude to Dr. Felix Bast for sparing his valuable time to give these insights about this discovery and sharing the experience of this risky yet adventurous journey to make India proud.
Also read: COVID-19 vaccine in Immunocompromised individuals.
Author info:
Richa Prakash is a passionate life science researcher with a post-graduation in Life Sciences with a specialization in Microbial Sciences from the Central University of Punjab and graduation in Biotechnology from Amity University Rajasthan. Currently working as a scientific content writer and aiming for a PhD. Her research fields of interest are microbiology, molecular biology, and genetic engineering.
Publications:
- Singh, H., Das, S., Gupta, P. P., Batra, S., Prakash, R., Srivastava, V. K., Jyoti, A., Gupta, V., Kothari, S. L., & Kaushik, S. (2020). Binding of metronidazole to Enterococcus faecalis homoserine kinase: Binding studies, docking studies, and molecular dynamics simulation studies. Pharmacognosy Magazine, 16(5), 553. https://doi.org/10.4103/pm.pm_99_20
Other publications at Bioxone:
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