Abstract This research paper takes a look at a special type of dehydration known as dessication, where drying takes place in air. The paper is concerned with responses to water stress at a cellular level and is dedicated to exploring the current research being done in explicating the idea of desiccation tolerance in prokaryotes, namely, bacteria and archaea.
From the Paper "Bacteria are critical to most molecular biology research. If a DNA sample is to be studied or created in large quantities for expression purposes for (for instance) protein synthesis, researchers make use of Escherichia coli. The DNA is inserted into the E. coli chromosomal plasmid. The bacteria are then spotted on a plate that contains nutrients and moisture that allows the bacteria to grow and reproduce. Each spot is then allowed to multiply (almost exponentially) in a medium rich for bacterial growth. This medium is aqueous. It is kept at a temperature of 37 ?C"the ideal temperature for bacterial growth. E. coli then multiplies by the typical bacterial reproductive process of geometric cell division, thus creating large quantities of the DNA to be studied. The point for using, what is called as recombinant DNA techniques, is not only to illustrate that bacteria drive research, but that bacteria thrive under moist conditions at the right (and mild) temperature. The operative terms being"moist and mild. As such, E. coli, despite its abundance is not a good candidate for desiccation tolerance and research has shown that this is indeed true."
