Study
Anhydrobiosis
Crowe, John H.; Hoekstra, Folkert A.; Crowe, Lois M.
Annual Review of Physiology, 1992
Reviews the biophysics of surviving the loss of nearly all cellular water, with particular attention to the sugar trehalose and its effect on membranes and proteins during drying.
- Studied in
- Animalia, Plantae, Fungi
- Sample size
- review across kingdoms
Organisms that survive drying accumulate protective sugars that substitute for water at membrane and protein surfaces and hold the cell contents in a glass, preventing the structural collapse that otherwise occurs as water leaves.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Desiccation tolerance is a biophysical problem solved by replacing water’s structural role, not by any metabolic activity during the dry state.
How NatureHQ reads it
The mechanism record behind the drying pages. It also underwrites a correction: the danger in drying out is not thirst but the physical collapse of membranes and proteins once the water that held their shape is gone.
- The trehalose account is well supported in some groups and incomplete in others — tardigrades, notably, rely substantially on proteins instead.
- A 1992 review; the protein-based mechanisms were largely discovered later.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Cryptobiosis
In the deepest dried states, no metabolism can be detected at all — and that is the honest way to say it. Whether metabolism has genuinely stopped or is simply below what instruments can see is still open.
Desiccation tolerance
The danger in drying out is not thirst. Water holds membranes and proteins in shape, and when it leaves they collapse. Organisms that survive it fill the gap with sugars or proteins that set into a glass.
Published by: Annual ReviewsPublished in an Annual Reviews journal.
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