Sequence and Environment Paradigm
What do you do when it gets cold outside? Maybe wear warm clothes and a coat? This is an example of your environment determining what you do. Well, the same may be true for intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs).
Mediators of desiccation protection and their environment
Typically in proteins, structure determines function. In IDPs one protein can have many structures that function differently. So how do proteins choose what conformation they hold? To answer this question go back to our example of the cold, they interact with their environment!
During desiccation in tardigrades two things have been shown to happen. There is a cellular increase in the amount of protective IDPs and in the amount a sugar called trehalose. We propose that increased concentration of trehalose and other protective osmolites may change how protective IDPs function.
We hope to discover how intracellular environments affect the folding of IDPs and how this can change their protective function during desiccation.