Desiccation tolerance in Anemia caffrorum

This project aims to unravel mechanisms of desiccation tolerance by leveraging the unique seasonal desiccation tolerance of Anemia caffrorum. In the dry season A. caffrorum is desiccation tolerant and in the wet season it is desiccation sensitive. Transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics will be performed and contrasted across seasons to identify mechanisms associated with desiccation tolerance. For transcriptomics, both long and short read sequencing will be performed to improve the transcriptome assembly. Moreover, 16S and ITS amplicon sequencing will be performed to investigate the role of the microbiome. Finally, we aim to provide an annotated genome for this species.