Desiccation-tolerant plants can be grouped into two categories: the 1) desiccation-tolerant plants whose internal water content rapidly equilibrates to the water potential of the environment and 2) the modified desiccation-tolerant plants that all employ mechanisms to retard and control the rate of water loss. Desiccation tolerance can be achieved by mechanisms that incorporate one of two alternatives, viz. cellular protection or cellular recovery (repair). The majority of plants probably utilize aspects of both. Desiccation-tolerant species, in particular the moss Tortula ruralis, appear to utilize a tolerance strategy that combines a constitutive protection system and a rehydration-inducible recovery mechanism. The rehydration-induced recovery mechanism of Tortula ruralis relies heavily upon a change in gene expression that is mediated by posttranscriptional events rather than the slower reacting transcriptional controls. Findings indicate that it takes a certain amount of prior water loss to fully activate the protein-based portion of the recovery mechanisms upon rehydration. Utilizing cDNAs representing individual hydrins (proteins whose synthesis is hydration specific) and rehydrins (proteins whose synthesis is rehydration specific), it was determined that if drying rates were slow rehydrin transcripts selectively accumulate in the dried gametophytes. Studies revealed that this storage involves the formation of mRNPs (messenger ribonucleoprotein particles). The identity and possible functions of the rehydrins of Tortula ruralis are also under investigation, in particular Tr155, a small rehydrin (24kD) appears to be involved in antioxidant production during rehydration.
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