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Water Bears and Radiotolerance in Human Cells

During my junior year of high school I had the opportunity to take a class on Biotechnology. My professor had many pictures around his room of a species called tardigrades. They are also more commonly known as "water bears". Ever since learning their unique properties, I have been fascinated with learning more about them. The article "Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein" provided, for me, some of the most interesting facts concerning tardigrades I have found by far. This article talks about the relationship of unique tardigrades with radiotolerance of human cells.

The article begins by discussing a few of the unique properties tardigrades posses. One of the main abilities of this species is being able to survive under extreme temperatures as low as -273 °C and as high as 100 °C. when in a dehydrated state. To test this tolerance factor, Hashimoto, T, et al. (2016) analysed two types of this species in a dehydrated state (Ramazzottius varieornatus and Hypsibius dujardini). During their comparison, they discovered that R. varieornatus expressed the most prevalent genes for tolerance under the extreme temperatures. They found that 138 out of the 234 putative HGT (tolerance genes) underwent transcription, making it the appropriate type of tardigrade to test (Hashimoto, 2016). 

To further understand these tolerances, their studies progressed to focus on DNA associated proteins within R. varieornatus. To test this, these scientists took the nuclear chromatin and combined that with GFP. This allowed them to isolate the tolerance protein which is called Damage suppressor or Dsup. They discovered that the Dsup protein co-localizes with nuclear DNA in HEK 293T cells (human cells). Taking this isolated protein, they then compared the effects of damaged nuclear DNA.

To observe this they took both the Dsup with the HEK 293T cells and put them in different cultures such as under X-rays and in hydrogen peroxide. When under X-ray radiation, they found that the damaged DNA was suppressed by 16%. In the hydrogen peroxide medium, they found a 40% reduction of fragmented DNA when compared to a control. These incredible results offered a conclusion that these co-isolated proteins have an exceptional radiotolerance in human cells. 

I found this article incredible insightful and unique because of how this could impact our tolerance to all the radiation found in our day to day lives. There is a widely accepted social belief that radioactivity derives in a variety of mediums with the potential to damage human DNA. Likewise, their are implications for this tolerance in tardigrades to help with this damage.  I am excited to know that this tolerance could be expressed in human genes and could potentially treat patients with radiation damage. I truly hope this tolerance can be used to impact society by contributing to modern medicines in the near future.

-Brandon D. Ostler

References
Hashimoto, T., et al. (2016). Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein. Nature Communications, 7 (12808), Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12808

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