Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
Bioessays. 2017 Nov;39(11). doi: 10.1002/bies.201700119. Epub 2017 Sep 13.
Over 300 years ago the father of microscopy, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, observed dried rotifers (tiny animals) "coming back to life" upon rehydration. Since then, scientists have been fascinated by the enduring mystery of how certain organisms survive losing essentially drying out completely. Historically sugars, such as the disaccharide trehalose, have been viewed as major functional mediators of desiccation tolerance. However, some desiccation tolerant organisms do not produce this sugar, hinting that additional mediators, and potentially novel mechanisms exist. It has become apparent that a common theme among such organisms is the production and use of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) to mediate survival in this dry state. However, the basic biology of these proteins - which unlike globular proteins lack persistent three-dimensional structure - is poorly understood, as are the functional mechanisms utilized by these enigmatic proteins that allow them to mediate desiccation tolerance. We purpose that probing the biochemical and biophysical nature of stress-related IDPs will provide mechanistic insights into these fascinating proteins.
300 多年前，显微镜的发明者安东尼·范·列文虎克观察到干燥的轮虫（一种微小的动物）在重新水合时“复活”。从那时起，科学家们就一直着迷于某些生物如何在失去水分的情况下还能存活的持久之谜。历史上，糖，如二糖海藻糖，一直被视为脱水耐性的主要功能介质。然而，一些具有脱水耐性的生物并不产生这种糖，这表明可能存在其他介质和潜在的新机制。很明显，这些生物的一个共同主题是产生和使用内在无序蛋白（IDPs）来介导在干燥状态下的存活。然而，这些蛋白的基本生物学——与球状蛋白不同，它们缺乏持久的三维结构——理解得很差，同样不清楚的还有这些神秘蛋白所利用的功能机制，这些机制使它们能够介导脱水耐性。我们认为，探究与应激相关的 IDPs 的生化和生物物理性质将为这些迷人的蛋白提供机制上的见解。
