Nematodes are the dominant soil animals of the Antarctic Dry Valleys and are capable of surviving desiccation and freezing in an anhydrobiotic state. Genes induced by desiccation stress have been successfully enumerated in nematodes; however, little is known about gene regulation by Antarctic nematodes that can survive multiple types and incidences of environmental stress. In order to reveal th...

Resurrection plants usually grow in specific or extreme habitats and have the capacity to survive almost complete water loss. We characterized the physiological and biochemical responses of Paraisometrum mileense to extreme desiccation and found that it is a resurrection plant. We profiled the changes in lipid molecular species during dehydration and rehydration in P. mileense, and compared the...

Acquisition of desiccation tolerance and the related changes at the cellular level in wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Priokskaya) kernels during normal development and premature drying on the ear were studied using a spin probe technique and low temperature scanning electron microscopy. During normal development, the ability of embryos to germinate after rapid drying and rehydration was acquired a...

The effects of storage and deep desiccation on structural changes of DNA in orthodox seeds are poorly characterized. In this study we analyzed the 5-methylcytosine (m(5)C) global content of DNA isolated from seeds of common pear (Pyrus communis L.) that had been subjected to extreme desiccation, and the seedlings derived from these seeds. Germination and seedling emergence tests were applied to...

Desiccation tolerance plays an important role in the overwinter survival of the foliar nematode Aphelenchoides fragariae. Survival rates of A. fragariae were compared with those of the anhydrobiotic soil-dwelling nematode Aphelenchus avenae after desiccation (90% RH), cold (4°C) and osmotic (500 mM sucrose) stress treatments. A. fragariae formed aggregates during desiccation and showed higher s...

We have examined the osmoregulatory capacities of laboratory populations of the insect Drosophila melanogaster by measuring hemolymph osmotic concentration during desiccation and upon recovery from a bout of desiccation. Recovery treatments entailed allowing the flies access to distilled water, a saline solution or a saline+sucrose solution after a desiccation bout shown to reduce hemolymph vol...

Orthodox seeds become desiccation-sensitive as they undergo germination. As a result, germinating seeds serve as a model to study desiccation sensitivity in plant tissues. The eff ects of the rate of drying on the viability, respiratory metabolism and free radical processes were thus studied during dehydration and wet storage of radicles of Pisum sativum. For both drying regimes desiccation cou...

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are a ubiquitous component of the cellular response to stress in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, but their role and function during desiccation stress in terrestrial arthropods has received limited attention. Molecular responses to rehydration are arguably as important as those to desiccation in maintaining cellular integrity and enzyme activity, but the ro...

The success of insects in terrestrial environments is due in large part to their ability to resist desiccation stress. Since the majority of water is lost across the cuticle, a relatively water-impermeable cuticle is a major component of insect desiccation resistance. Cuticular permeability is affected by the properties and mixing effects of component hydrocarbons, and changes in cuticular hydr...

Polypedilum vanderplanki is a striking and unique example of an insect that can survive almost complete desiccation. Its genome and a set of dehydration-rehydration transcriptomes, together with the genome of Polypedilum nubifer (a congeneric desiccation-sensitive midge), were recently released. Here, using published and newly generated datasets reflecting detailed transcriptome changes during ...