Studies on stress induced proteins and enzyme activity of Anguina tritici under anhydrobiotic condition

Exploration of anhydrobiosis associated proteins from anhydrobiotic ear-cockle nematode, Anguina tritici revealed that desiccated second stage juvenile (J₂) were having more number of low molecular proteins than that of the fresh J₂ and adult nematodes. The polypeptides with molecular weight of 18, 42, 47, 51, 57, 59 and 105K were judged to be the stage-specific proteins, which were found to be lacking either in fresh J₂s or in adult nematodes. The higher molecular protein 105K, was considered to function as reservoir for the amino acid pool. The metabolic activity in desiccated and nematode anhydrobiote was reduced considerably as evident on the basis of lower titre of key enzyme Malate dehydrogenase of TCA cycle. Comparative studies on Non-specific esterase showed increased activity of enzyme in the fresh J₂ compared to desiccated J₂ and adult nematodes.