New group of transmembrane proteins associated with desiccation tolerance in the anhydrobiotic midge Polypedilum vanderplanki.

ABSTRACT: Larvae of the sleeping chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki are known for their extraordinary ability to survive complete desiccation in an ametabolic state called "anhydrobiosis". The unique feature of P. vanderplanki genome is the presence of expanded gene clusters associated with anhydrobiosis. While several such clusters represent orthologues of known genes, there is a distinct set of genes unique for P. vanderplanki. These include Lea-Island-Located (LIL) genes with no known orthologues except two of LEA genes of P. vanderplanki, PvLea1 and PvLea3. However, PvLIL proteins lack typical features of LEA such as the state of intrinsic disorder, hydrophilicity and characteristic LEA_4 motif. They possess four to five transmembrane domains each and we confirmed membrane targeting for three P

SUBMITTER: Voronina TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7363813 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature