Trichoplax adhaerens is one of the earliest-branching extant multicellular
animals and represents an important evolutionary model for investigating the
origin of animal multicellularity, cell-type evolution, and intercellular
coordination. However, under laboratory conditions,
Trichoplax cultures
are still maintained primarily by manual passaging, and the lack of a reliable
medium- to long-term preservation strategy limits both experimental continuity
and resource sharing. In this study, we used
T. adhaerens Grell strain/H1
to examine temperature-dependent changes in growth, behavior, and gene
expression, with the aim of evaluating the feasibility of low-temperature preservation.
Compared with conventional culture conditions, cultivation at 16°C markedly
reduced locomotor activity and growth rate while preserving basic physiological
functions. Behavioral and transcriptomic analyses further indicated that
Trichoplax responds to low temperature by downregulating carbohydrate- and
lipid-metabolism-related processes, thereby slowing growth and developmental
progression. Upon return to standard culture temperature,
low-temperature-treated individuals rapidly resumed normal growth activity. Based on
these findings, we further optimized a low-temperature preservation strategy
that enabled stable survival of
Trichoplax for
more than two months without manual intervention. This study provides a
practical approach for the preservation and long-term maintenance of
Trichoplax, establishing a technical basis for its wider
application as an experimental model organism.