Posted on 03/17/2017 1:50:15 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Tardigrades are microscopic animals that survive a remarkable array of stresses, including desiccation [extreme drying].
How tardigrades survive desiccation has remained a mystery for more than 250 years.
Trehalose, a disaccharide essential for several organisms to survive drying, is detected at low levels or not at all in some tardigrade species, indicating that tardigrades possess potentially novel mechanisms for surviving desiccation.
Here we show that tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins (TDPs) are essential for desiccation tolerance. TDP genes are constitutively expressed at high levels or induced during desiccation in multiple tardigrade species. TDPs are required for tardigrade desiccation tolerance, and these genes are sufficient to increase desiccation tolerance when expressed in heterologous systems.
TDPs form non-crystalline amorphous solids (vitrify) upon desiccation, and this vitrified state mirrors their protective capabilities.
Our study identifies TDPs as functional mediators of tardigrade desiccation tolerance, expanding our knowledge of the roles and diversity of disordered proteins involved in stress tolerance.
They are kind of “cute” in a particularly
warped sense.
It’s just good that they don’t weigh two tons.
Definitely the headline of the day. Personally I use beer to survive desiccation, but they don’t have any of those little bitty bottle openers, I guess.
Yea, I do. All I ended up with was a jar filled with muddy water........
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