The tardigrade Dsup protein enhances radioresistance in Drosophila melanogaster and acts as an unspecific repressor of transcription

Mikhail Zarubin; Talyana Azorskaya; Olga Kuldoshina; Sergey Alekseev; Semen Mitrofanov; Elena Kravchenko

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106998

The tardigrade Dsup protein enhances radioresistance in Drosophila melanogaster and acts as an unspecific repressor of transcription

iScience. 2023 May 29;26(7):106998. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106998. eCollection 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Mikhail Zarubin¹, Talyana Azorskaya¹, Olga Kuldoshina¹, Sergey Alekseev², Semen Mitrofanov², Elena Kravchenko¹

Affiliations

¹ Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, International Intergovernmental Organization Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia.
² Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, International Intergovernmental Organization Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia.

Abstract

The tardigrade-unique damage suppressor protein (Dsup) can protect DNA from ionizing radiation and reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we generated Dsup-expressing lines of Drosophila melanogaster and demonstrated that Dsup increased the survival rate after γ-ray irradiation and hydrogen peroxide treatment in flies too, but reduced the level of their locomotor activity. The transcriptome analyses of Dsup-expressing lines revealed a significant number of DEGs, >99% of which were down-regulated. Moreover, Dsup could bind RNA. These findings suggest that Dsup can act not only as a DNA protector but also as a non-specific transcriptional repressor and RNA-binding protein, that may lead to disturbance of a number of biological processes in D. melanogaster. The obtained data demonstrate features of the Dsup protein action in non-tardigrade organisms and can be used to understand the impact of other unspecific DNA/RNA-binding proteins on ROS and radiation resistance, gene expression, and epigenetic processes.

Keywords: Cell biology; Molecular biology; Transcriptomics.