UC Riverside

Tardigrades are microscopic eukaryotic organisms with the unique ability to withstand a wide range of hostile conditions including sudden pressure changes, freezing, radiation exposure and desiccation. Their ability to survive in harsh conditions is under active research but the expression of Tardigrade-specific Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (TDPs) are thought to play a role. TDPs are thought to have a chaperone-like role in maintaining protein structure under stress, especially during hyperosmotic and desiccating conditions. It is currently poorly understood the extent to which TDPs offer similar stress tolerance in mammalian cells. The goal of this investigation is to determine the impacts of TDP expression in MDCK cells, a common epithelial cell model. Specifically, we expressed the TDP CAHS3 in MDCK cells and quantified the epithelial phenotype, heat stress tolerance, and solvent stress tolerance. CAHS3 expression was associated with increased stress tolerance in MDCK cells, and protein expression associated with loss of epithelial phenotype.