Fig. 6.

AfrLEA6 expression increases the structural integrity and intracellular viscosity of Kc167 cells during desiccation. (A) Kc167 cells expressing AfrLEA6 (A, a to c) were desiccated concurrently with vector control cells (A, d to f). Cells expressing AfrLEA6 retained more of their native spherical morphology (A and B) than vector control cells (A, e). To demonstrate differences in cell height, samples were scratched multiple times with a pipette tip (A, c and f). Yellow lines indicate positions of performed scratches. Red arrows indicate areas where the scratch passed through salt deposits, and blue arrows indicate areas where the scratch passed through cells. (B) Fresh cells from both lines were incubated with Nile Red at a final concentration of 0.1 µg/mL for 5 min. Increasing red fluorescence is indicative of increasing intracellular viscosity. The decrease in red fluorescence between (B, b) and (B, c) may be due to the intracellular environment changing from a viscous gel to a glassy state, where Nile Red starts to precipitate out of solution and become nonfluorescent. Presented images are representative images from one of three separate trials. (Scale bars: 10 µm.)