Cláudia Carolina Silva Evangelista, Giovanna Vieira Guidelli, Gustavo Borges, Thais Fenz Araujo, Tiago Alves Jorge de Souza, Ubiraci Pereira da Costa Neves, Alan Tunnacliffe, Tiago Campos Pereira

The molecular basis of anhydrobiosis, the state of suspended animation entered by some species during extreme desiccation, is still poorly understood despite a number of transcriptome and proteome studies. We therefore conducted functional screening by RNA interference (RNAi) for genes involved in anhydrobiosis in the holo-anhydrobiotic nematode Panagrolaimus superbus. A new method of survival analysis, based on staining, and proof-of-principle RNAi experiments confirmed a role for genes involved in oxidative stress tolerance, while a novel medium-scale RNAi workflow identified a further 40 anhydrobiosis-associated genes, including several involved in proteostasis, DNA repair and signal transduction pathways. This suggests that multiple genes contribute to anhydrobiosis in P. superbus.