Revealing the secrets of dormancy and of survival during desiccation

Paper in proceeding, 2007

Dormancy is a strategy used by many organisms to survive adverse conditions. We aim at enhancing our knowledge of dormancy so as to assess the feasibility of inducing cells or organisms into reversible dormant stages or survival during desiccating conditions. Genomic, proteomic and metabolomic tools used in the course of our studies aim at identifying the molecular and cellular processes that enable five model organisms to tolerate adverse conditions. These are: Cyanobacteria that have specialized dormant cells (akinetes) that tolerate unfavourable environmental conditions Baker's yeast that can survive long periods in a spore phase, that are characterized by desiccation and high levels of trehalose Rotifers that produce eggs (resting eggs) containing developmental-arrested embryos after sexual (but not asexual) reproduction Arctic springtails that reduce their body water content to avoid freezing while producing trehalose and becoming metabolically inactive Killifish embryos in eggs that show resistance to environmental desiccation conditions Our studies aim at revealing the mechanisms that establish dormancy and resistance to desiccation, those that allow the revival from dormant stages and the properties that make dormant stages stress-tolerant. The search for common denominators will assist in leading potentially useful strategies for artificial induction of dormancy and of cell preservation.