Natural and Designed Proteins Inspired by Extremotolerant Organisms Can Form Condensates and Attenuate Apoptosis in Human Cells.

ABSTRACT: Many organisms can survive extreme conditions and successfully recover to normal life. This extremotolerant behavior has been attributed in part to repetitive, amphipathic, and intrinsically disordered proteins that are upregulated in the protected state. Here, we assemble a library of approximately 300 naturally occurring and designed extremotolerance-associated proteins to assess their ability to protect human cells from chemically induced apoptosis. We show that several proteins from tardigrades, nematodes, and the Chinese giant salamander are apoptosis-protective. Notably, we identify a region of the human ApoE protein with similarity to extremotolerance-associated proteins that also protects against apoptosis. This region mirrors the phase separation behavior seen with such proteins,

SUBMITTER: Veling MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9651988 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature