Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein
Takuma Hashimoto, Daiki D. Horikawa, Yuki Saito, Hirokazu Kuwahara, Hiroko Kozuka-Hata, Tadasu Shin-I, Yohei Minakuchi, Kazuko Ohishi, Ayuko Motoyama, Tomoyuki Aizu, Atsushi Enomoto, Koyuki Kondo, Sae Tanaka, Yuichiro Hara, Shigeyuki Koshikawa, Hiroshi Sagara, Toru Miura, Shin-ichi Yokobori, Kiyoshi Miyagawa, Yutaka Suzuki et al.
Affiliations Contributions Corresponding authors
Nature Communications 7, Article number: 12808 doi: 10.1038/ncomms12808
Received 21 June 2015 Accepted 03 August 2016 Published 20 September 2016
Fig. 1: The extremotolerant tardigrade R. varieornatus and taxonomic origins of its gene repertoire
Abstract
Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are small aquatic animals. Some tardigrade species tolerate almost complete dehydration and exhibit extraordinary tolerance to various physical extremes in the dehydrated state. Here we determine a high-quality genome sequence of Ramazzottius varieornatus, one of the most stress-tolerant tardigrade species. Precise gene repertoire analyses reveal the presence of a small proportion (1.2% or less) of putative foreign genes, loss of gene pathways that promote stress damage, expansion of gene families related to ameliorating damage, and evolution and high expression of novel tardigrade-unique proteins. Minor changes in the gene expression profiles during dehydration and rehydration suggest constitutive expression of tolerance-related genes. Using human cultured cells, we demonstrate that a tardigrade-unique DNA-associating protein suppresses X-ray-induced DNA damage by ~40% and improves radiotolerance. These findings indicate the relevance of tardigrade-unique proteins to tolerability and tardigrades could be a bountiful source of new protection genes and mechanisms.
FREE PDF GRATIS: Nature Communications Sup Info 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
