NYT: deep-sea organism uses sulfide to detoxify arsenic

NYT: The polychaete worm Paralvinella hessleri
Ocean.Credit...Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology"

Via the New York Times, this pretty cool bit of science: 

Arsenic is a toxic metal, and exposure to it has been linked with serious health issues like cancer and neurological disorders in humans.

However, high levels of arsenic don’t faze Paralvinella hessleri, a golden deep-sea polychaete worm with featherlike gills and a mouthful of tentacles. In some of these worms, which reside along hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, arsenic accounts for 1 percent of their total body weight.

It’s not an organism that relies on arsenic to live. Instead scientists have uncovered how these worms survive deadly amounts of arsenic. In a paper published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers describe a novel process within the worms’ cells where accumulated arsenic combines with toxic sulfide from the surrounding water to create a less hazardous mineral.

Hao Wang, a biologist at the Institute of Oceanology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an author of the new study, likens the strategy to “fighting poison with poison.”

Gotta say, this is pretty cool.