Protoplasts were isolated from pea (Pisum sativum L. cv. Alaska) embryonic axes during and after germination to determine whether the loss of desiccation tolerance in the embryos also occurs in the protoplasts. At all times studied, protoplast survival decreased as water content decreased; however, the sensitivity to dehydration was less when the protoplasts were isolated from embryos that were...

* Craterostigma plantagineum can lose up to 96% of its water content but fully recover within hours after rehydration. The callus tissue of the plant becomes desiccation tolerant upon pre-incubation with abscisic acid (ABA). In callus and vegetative organs, ABA addition and water depletion induce a set of dehydration-responsive genes. * Previously, activation tagging led to the isolation of Cra...

Tardigrades represent one of the main animal groups with anhydrobiotic capacity at any stage of their life cycle. The ability of tardigrades to survive repeated cycles of anhydrobiosis has rarely been studied but is of interest to understand the factors constraining anhydrobiotic survival. The main objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of survival of the eutardigrade Richtersi...

For plants and algae, exposure to high light levels is deleterious to their photosynthetic machineries. It also can accelerate water evaporation and thus potentially lead to drought stress. Most photosynthetic organisms protect themselves against high light caused photodamages by xanthophyll cycle-dependent thermal energy dissipation. It is generally accepted that high light activates xanthophy...

Sinorhizobium meliloti can form a nitrogen-fixing symbiotic relationship with alfalfa after bacteria in the soil infect emerging root hairs of the growing plant. To be successful at this, the bacteria must be able to survive in the soil between periods of active plant growth, including when conditions are dry. The ability of S. meliloti to withstand desiccation has been known for years, but gen...

The DNA molecule is associated with the role of encoding information required to produce RNA which is translated into proteins needed by the cell. This encoding involves information transmission to offspring or to other organisms by horizontal transfer. However, despite the abundance of this molecule in both the cell and the environment, its physiological role seems to be restricted mainly to t...

Adaptation of natural and laboratory-selected populations of Drosophila to desiccation stress results in enhanced water conservation abilities, and thus increased stress resistance. In this study, we tested whether laboratory selection for desiccation resistance is also reflected in increased mating success of adapted D. melanogaster males under desiccating conditions. Adapted flies perform bet...

The lowland rainforest of northeastern Costa Rica harbours an assemblage of large wandering spider species belonging to three habitat subguilds: (1) semi-aquatic, (2) forest ground dwelling and (3) vegetation dwelling. We hypothesized that desiccation resistance should differ among species preferring different microhabitats and the associated microclimate. Desiccation resistance was assessed by...

Figure 1. Coronal slice through the transverse axis of the hippocampus. The black lines trace the classic ‘trisynaptic loop’. The red lines depict other important pathways in the hippocampus, including the direct projections from entorhinal cortex (EC) to all three CA fi elds, the feedback to the EC via the subiculum, the recurrent collateral circuitry of CA3, and the feedback projection from C...

In Azotobacter vinelandii, a cyst-forming bacterium, the alternative sigma factor RpoS is essential to the formation of cysts resistant to desiccation and to synthesis of the cyst-specific lipids, alkylresorcinols. In this study, we carried out a proteome analysis of vegetative cells and cysts of A. vinelandii strain AEIV and its rpoS mutant derivative AErpoS. This analysis allowed us to identi...