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...

Anhydrobiotic engineering aims to increase the level of desiccation tolerance in sensitive organisms to that observed in true anhydrobiotes. In addition to a suitable extracellular drying excipient, a key factor for anhydrobiotic engineering of gram-negative enterobacteria seems to be the generation of high intracellular concentrations of the nonreducing disaccharide trehalose, which can be ach...

Seed germination is an important stage in life cycle of higher plants. The germination processes and its associated loss of desiccation tolerance, however, are still poorly understood. In present study, pea seeds were used to study changes in embryonic axis proteome during germination by 2-DE and mass spectrometry. We identified a total of 139 protein spots showing a significant (>2-fold) chang...

The growth and persistence of rhizobia and bradyrhizobia in soils are negatively impacted by drought conditions. In this study, we used genome-wide transcriptional analyses to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the response of Bradyrhizobium japonicum to drought. Desiccation of cells resulted in the differential expression of 15 to 20% of the 8,453 [corrected] B. japonicum open reading fra...

The ability of seeds to withstand desiccation develops during embryogenesis and differs considerably among species. Paddy rice (Oryza sativa L.) grains readily survive dehydration to as low as 2% water content, whereas North American wild rice (Zizania palustris var interior [Fasset] Dore) grains are not tolerant of water contents below 6% and are sensitive to drying and imbibition conditions. ...

Although most green algae typically occur in aquatic ecosystems, many species also live partly or permanently under aeroterrestrial conditions, where the cells are exposed to the atmosphere and hence regularly experience dehydration. The ability of algal cells to survive in an air-dried state is termed desiccation tolerance. The mechanisms involved in desiccation tolerance of green algae are st...

Seed traits are related to several ecological attributes of a plant species, including its distribution. While the storage physiology of desiccation-sensitive seeds has drawn considerable attention, their ecology has remained sidelined, particularly how the strong seasonality of precipitation in monsoonal climate affects their temporal and spatial distribution. We compiled data on seed mass, se...