ArticleJournal of experimental botany2021
How dry is dry? Molecular mobility in relation to thallus water content in a lichen.
Article in Journal of experimental botany, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Semilichen, an unjustly neglected symbiotic system between green biofilms and true lichens.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dormancy release in dry seeds is now less of an enigma more of a process.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Article
- The sound of lichens: ultrasonic acoustic emissions during desiccation question cavitation events in the hyphae.Journal of experimental botany · 2024Article
- How to Survive without Water: A Short Lesson on the Desiccation Tolerance of Budding Yeast.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- How to build a lichen: from metabolite release to symbiotic interplay.The New phytologist · 2023Review
- Near-Infrared Metabolomic Fingerprinting Study of Lichen Thalli and Phycobionts in Culture: Aquaphotomics ofMicroorganisms · 2022Article
- Evaluation of a bacterial group 1 LEA protein as an enzyme protectant from stress-induced inactivation.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2022Article
- The lichen market place.The New phytologist · 2022Article
- Functional and Conformational Plasticity of an Animal Group 1 LEA Protein.Biomolecules · 2022Article
- The Orthodox Dry Seeds Are Alive: A Clear Example of Desiccation Tolerance.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Modeling in yeast how rDNA introns slow growth and increase desiccation tolerance in lichens.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Article
- Advances in Understanding of Desiccation Tolerance of Lichens and Lichen-Forming Algae.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- AtFAHD1a: A New Player Influencing Seed Longevity and Dormancy in Arabidopsis?International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Lichens - growing greenhousesMicrobial cell (Graz, Austria) · 2021Article
- What is dry? Exploring metabolism and molecular mobility at extremely low water contents.Journal of experimental botany · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Lichens can withstand extreme desiccation to water contents of ≤ 0.1 g H2O g-1 DW, and in the desiccated state are among the most extremotolerant organisms known. Desiccation-tolerant life-forms such as seeds, mosses and lichens survive 'vitrification', that is the transition of their cytoplasm to a 'glassy' state, which causes metabolism to cease. However, our understanding of the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance is hindered by poor knowledge of what reactions occur in the desiccated state. Using Flavoparmelia caperata as a model lichen, we determined at what water contents vitrification occurred upon desiccation. Molecular mobility was assessed by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and the de- and re-epoxidation of the xanthophyll cycle pigments (measured by HPLC) was used as a proxy to assess enzyme activity. At 20 °C vitrification occurred between 0.12-0.08 g H2O g-1 DW and enzymes were active in a 'rubbery' state (0.17 g H2O g-1 DW) but not in a glassy state (0.03 g H2O g-1 DW). Therefore, desiccated tissues may appear to be 'dry' in the conventional sense, but subtle differences in water content will have substantial consequences on the types of (bio)chemical reactions that can occur, with downstream effects on longevity in the desiccated state.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.