Genetic background of enhanced radioresistance in an anhydrobiotic insect: transcriptional response to ionizing radiations and desiccation.
It is assumed that resistance to ionizing radiation, as well as cross-resistance to other abiotic stresses, is a side effect of the evolutionary-based adaptation of anhydrobiotic animals to dehydration stress. Larvae of Polypedilum vanderplanki can withstand prolonged desiccation as well as high doses of ionizing radiation exposure. For a further understanding of the mechanisms of cross-tolerance to both types of stress exposure, we profiled genome-wide mRNA expression patterns using microarray techniques on the chironomid larvae collected at different stages of desiccation and after exposure to two types of ionizing radiation-70 Gy of high-linear energy transfer (LET) ions (4He) and the same dose of low-LET radiation (gamma rays). In expression profiles, a wide transcriptional response to desiccation stress that much exceeded the amount of up-regulated transcripts to irradiation exposure was observed. An extensive group of coincidently up-regulated overlapped transcripts in response to desiccation and ionizing radiation was found. Among this, overlapped set of transcripts was indicated anhydrobiosis-related genes: antioxidants, late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, and heat-shock proteins. The most overexpressed group was that of protein-L-isoaspartate/D-aspartate O-methyltransferase (PIMT), while probes, corresponding to LEA proteins, were the most represented. Performed functional analysis showed strongly enriched gene ontology terms associated with protein methylation. In addition, active processes of DNA repair were detected. We assume that the cross-tolerance of the sleeping chironomid to both desiccation and irradiation exposure comes from a complex mechanism of adaptation to anhydrobiosis.
Institute of Fundamental Biology and Medicine, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia.
Alina
A
Ryabova
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan.|Anhydrobiosis Research Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan.
Kyosuke
K
Mukae
Institute of Fundamental Biology and Medicine, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia.
Alexander
A
Cherkasov
Anhydrobiosis Research Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan.
Richard
R
Cornette
Institute of Fundamental Biology and Medicine, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia.
Elena
E
Shagimardanova
Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Takasaki, Japan.
Tetsuya
T
Sakashita
Anhydrobiosis Research Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan.
Takashi
T
Okuda
Anhydrobiosis Research Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan. kikawada@affrc.go.jp.|Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan. kikawada@affrc.go.jp.
Takahiro
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2329-9282
T
Kikawada
Institute of Fundamental Biology and Medicine, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia. oleg.gusev@riken.jp.|Anhydrobiosis Research Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan. oleg.gusev@riken.jp.|Center for Life Science Technologies, RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan. oleg.gusev@riken.jp.|RIKEN Innovation Center, RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan. oleg.gusev@riken.jp.
Oleg
O
Gusev
D000818:Animals; D002683:Chironomidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003890:Desiccation; D049750:Genome, Insect; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D026601:Protein D-Aspartate-L-Isoaspartate Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011836:Radiation Tolerance / Q000235:genetics*; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D059467:Transcriptome
D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D026601:Protein D-Aspartate-L-Isoaspartate Methyltransferase
Anhydrobiosis; Bioinformatics and evolutionary relationship of enzymes; Molecular biology; Radiation tolerance