Expressing a Tardigrade Protein to Prevent Tauopathy in Drosophila

Why Tardigrades (water bears)?

Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme environment: they can withstand low temperatures and desiccation. They would enter a state of suspended animation, in which they would reduce their metabolism to a very low rate so that they could survive in this state for years. Cytoplasmic-abundant heat-soluble protein 3 (CAHS3), one of the unique protective proteins of tardigrades, are essential for their survival under harsh conditions. It has been shown that ectopic expressed CAHS3 in mammalian cells forms gel like granules to help protein folding and prevent cell death. We want to know that whether this kind of protein can also help to fold tau proteins and prevent tauopathy.

Our Goal

In our project, we are going to try to make a transgenic fruit fly strain expressing tardigrade CAHS3 protein and test whether its expression could reduce the damage of tau to fly eyes.

Reference

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