Fig. 4.

AavLEA1 provides limited protection of mCherry during desiccation. (A) Absorbance and (B) fluorescence emission spectra of mCherry, before and after four cycles of drying and rehydration. (C) Effect of drying on mCherry in the absence or presence of AvLEA1 or BSA (control) at molar ratios of 1 : 1 and 1 : 5. (D) Effect of desiccation on mCherry and an AavLEA1-mCherry fusion protein. Absorbance at 587 nm (the absorbance maximum of the intrinsic fluorophore) was measured before and after two and four cycles of drying and rehydration. Data were normalised, with the absorbance of the untreated sample represented as 1, for ease of comparison. All experiments were carried out in triplicate; error bars indicate ± 1 SD. *** denotes significance at p < 0.001 and * denotes p < 0.05 using one-way ANOVA, plus Tukey post test; ns, not significant.