Research in Vienna

The “water monster” axolotl harbors eternal life

A mystical underwater animal is supposed to help overcome death.

(Bild: ÖAW/Johannes Hloch)

A mystical underwater animal is said to help overcome death. The axolotl, which the American biochemist Elly Tanaka is examining closely in her specially equipped laboratory in Vienna-Landstraße - far away from the exotic home of the aquatic animal - is a wondrous creature.

The Mexican tailed amphibian resembles both a newt and a salamander and also has the features of a tadpole. This is because it remains in the larval stage for its entire life, but nevertheless becomes sexually mature. This phenomenon is called neoteny.

The name axolotl comes from the Aztec natives and translates as "water monster". However, the animal, which can grow up to 25 centimetres long, is completely peaceful.

I keep 1500 axolotls at my institute and use them to research the regeneration of body structures. However, this species is almost extinct in the wild.

Molekularbiologin Elly Tanaka forscht in Wien

The head of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Academy of Sciences, Elly Tanaka

(Bild: ÖAW)

On the left and right side of the neck are cute gill appendages, which in some species stand out in color and resemble small trees.

The head of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Academy of Sciences, who was appointed on April 1, has also come to know the little "smilers" as a true wonder animal.

Only found in two lakes

The axolotl is only found in Lake Xochimilco and the neighboring Lake Chalco near Mexico City. The two bodies of water, which lie in a volcanic basin, are remnants of a once extensive water system. They provide the cool, oxygen-rich water conditions that these animals prefer for the caudates from the family of cross-toothed newts that live at the bottom of the lakes.

Their 1500 adult axolotls and several hundred babies are world champions of regeneration. If a leg is bitten off, teeth bore into its spinal cord or parts of its brain are removed, the lost body parts or organs grow back - as an exact copy!

And in just a few weeks, without leaving a single scar. However, Tanaka does not bend her protégés' legs: research is carried out on pure cell cultures of the salamander. Her team attaches great importance to deciphering the phenomenon of eternal life in this way: All axolotls in their care enjoy species-appropriate husbandry.

Mark Perry, Oliver Papacek