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Pv11 is an insect cell line established from the midge Polypedilum vanderplanki, whose larval form exhibits an extreme desiccation tolerance known as anhydrobiosis. Pv11 itself is also capable of anhydrobiosis, which is induced by trehalose treatment. Here we report the successful construction of a genome editing system for Pv11 cells and its application to the identification of signaling pathways involved in anhydrobiosis. Using the Cas9-mediated gene knock-in system, we established Pv11 cells that stably expressed GCaMP3 to monitor intracellular Ca2+ mobilization. Intriguingly, trehalose treatment evoked a transient increase in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration, and further experiments revealed that the calmodulin–calcineurin–NFAT pathway contributes to tolerance of trehalose treatment as well as desiccation tolerance, while the calmodulin–calmodulin kinase–CREB pathway conferred only desiccation tolerance on Pv11 cells. Thus, our results show a critical contribution of the trehalose-induced Ca2+ surge to anhydrobiosis and demonstrate temporally different roles for each signaling pathway.

The Pv11, an insect cell line established from the midge Polypedilum vanderplanki, is capable of extreme hypometabolic desiccation tolerance, so-called anhydrobiosis. We previously discovered that heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) contributes to the acquisition of desiccation tolerance by Pv11 cells, but the mechanistic details have yet to be elucidated. Here, by analyzing the gene expression profiles of newly established HSF1-knockout and -rescue cell lines, we show that HSF1 has a genome-wide effect on gene regulation in Pv11. The HSF1-knockout cells exhibit a reduced desiccation survival rate, but this is completely restored in HSF1-rescue cells. By comparing mRNA profiles of the two cell lines, we reveal that HSF1 induces anhydrobiosis-related genes, especially genes encoding late embryogenesis abundant proteins and thioredoxins, but represses a group of genes involved in basal cellular processes, thus promoting an extreme hypometabolism state in the cell. In addition, HSF1 binding motifs are enriched in the promoters of anhydrobiosis-related genes and we demonstrate binding of HSF1 to these promoters by ChIP-qPCR. Thus, HSF1 directly regulates the transcription of anhydrobiosis-related genes and consequently plays a pivotal role in the induction of anhydrobiotic ability in Pv11 cells.

Pv11 is an insect cell line established from the midge Polypedilum vanderplanki that exhibits an extreme desiccation tolerance known as anhydrobiosis. Pv11 has also an anhydrobiotic ability which is induced by trehalose treatment. Here we report the successful construction of the genome editing system for Pv11 cells and its application for identifying the signaling pathways in the anhydrobiosis. Using the Cas9-mediated gene knock-in system, we established GCaMP3-stably expressing Pv11 cells to monitor intracellular Ca2+ mobilization. Intriguingly, trehalose treatment evoked a transient increase of cytosolic Ca2+ concentration, and further experiments indicated the contribution of the calmodulin – calcineurin – NFAT pathway to the tolerance for trehalose treatment as well as the desiccation tolerance, while the calmodulin – calmodulin Kinase – CREB pathway conferred only the desiccation tolerance on Pv11 cells. Thus, our results show the critical contribution of the trehalose–induced Ca2+ surge to the anhydrobiosis and the temporal different roles of each signaling pathway.

Water is essential for living organisms. Terrestrial organisms are incessantly exposed to the stress of losing water, desiccation stress. Avoiding the mortality caused by desiccation stress, many organisms acquired molecular mechanisms to tolerate desiccation. Larvae of the African midge, Polypedilum vanderplanki, and its embryonic cell line Pv11 tolerate desiccation stress by entering an ametabolic state, anhydrobiosis, and return to active life after rehydration. The genes related to desiccation tolerance have been comprehensively analyzed, but transcriptional regulatory mechanisms to induce these genes after desiccation or rehydration remain unclear. Here, we comprehensively analyzed the gene regulatory network in Pv11 cells and compared it with that of Drosophila melanogaster, a desiccation sensitive species. We demonstrated that nuclear transcription factor Y subunit gamma-like, which is important for drought stress tolerance in plants, and its transcriptional regulation of downstream positive feedback loops have a pivotal role in regulating various anhydrobiosis-related genes. This study provides an initial insight into the systemic mechanism of desiccation tolerance.