desiccation tolerance

Here, we synthesize current knowledge on desiccation tolerance across evolutionary, ecological, physiological, and cellular scales to provide a roadmap for advancing desiccation tolerance research. We also address critical gaps and technical roadblocks, highlighting the need for standardized experimental practices, improved taxonomic sampling, and the development of new tools for studying biology in a dry state. We hope that this perspective can serve as a roadmap to accelerating research breakthroughs and unlocking the potential of desiccation tolerance to address global challenges related to climate change, food security, and health.

We sequenced the genome of S. ruralis, conducted transcriptomic analyses, and performed comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses with existing genomes and transcriptomes, including with the close relative S. caninervis. We took a genetic approach to characterize the role of an S. ruralis transcription factor, identified in transcriptomic analyses, in Arabidopsis thaliana. The new genomic resources from this emerging model moss offer novel insights into how plants regulate their responses to water deprivation.

With global climate change, water scarcity threatens whole agro/ecosystems. The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis, an extremophile, …