Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein

Found a 2016 article on Japanese research, which is less hyperbolic, https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i44/Water-bear-genomes-start... > Kunieda’s team started to investigate genes unique to the tardigrade. One such gene coded for a protein called damage suppressor protein, or Dsup. The protein appears to hang out with DNA in the nucleus of cells, and its sequence predicts that it contains a highly basic α-helix that could interact with DNA. Thinking that Dsup may play a role in protecting tardigrade DNA from damage, the team engineered cultured human embryonic kidney cells to express the Dsup gene and found that the cells had higher survival rates when exposed to X-rays compared with nonengineered cells. In particular, the cells had 40% less X-ray-induced DNA damage. 2016 paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12808 & https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.20648

Honestly, I can't find the result referenced in the article, nor in a similar article posted to SCMP. It might be because I'm searching in English, didn't dig too deep. My guess is that they added a gene that codes for Dsup[^1]. I don't think Dsup is well characterized mechanistically. I think it probably mostly protects DNA from secondary damage from ionizing radiation[^2], so protection from radicals produced by ionizing radiation, rather than direct breaks to the DNA itself (though maybe, I'm not familiar with research in the field). [^1]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12808 similar research noted in another comment as well. Note that most likely the novelty of the OP research is using CRISPR instead of the transfection method cited in the paper. [^2]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6773438/

The actual paper itself is available in full online and released under Creative Commons. We should do our best to promote research like this instead of linking to blogospam that is advertising articles like "Trumps IQ Will Shock You" or "Eat This Junk Food To 'Reverse' Dementia." http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12808 "Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein."

I figured the Gizmodo article added value. Here's the academic article, referenced near the top, whose title is hard to shorten in any case: http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12808 Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein