Scanning electron micrograph of six tardigradesTHOMAS BOOTHBYMicroscopic animals called tardigrades have remarkable survival skills, remaining viable after years without water; exposures to extremes of temperature, radiation, and oxygen deprivation; and even a trip through the vacuum of outer space. It’s been Thomas Boothby’s ambition to find out how.
At a talk at the American Society for Cell Biology – EMBO meeting Monday (December 4) in Philadelphia, Boothby presented new data from his investigation into proteins unique to tardigrades that appear critical for the animals’ ability to withstand desiccation. These proteins form a gel, and in low-water conditions appear to preserve other proteins’ folded shapes and protect them from degradation until rehydration.
Previously, Boothby, who is a postdoc in Gary Pielak’s lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his colleagues identified these proteins by looking for genes that were more active during desiccation. Through a number of experiments, they showed that such proteins in the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini allowed yeast and bacteria to survive drying out and also stabilized the function ...
