Tardigrades use unique protein to protect themselves from desiccation
Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 12:31
in Biology & Nature
Tardigrades have captured the imagination of scientists for almost 250 years, thanks to their ability to survive extreme environments that would destroy most other living things. One of these skills is the ability to endure being dried out for up to a decade or longer. Scientists report that this knack for survival is due to a unique set of proteins they dubbed tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins.