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Thermus thermophilus is an extremely thermophilic organism that thrives at a temperature of 65°C. T. thermophilus genome has ~2218 genes, out of which 66% (1482 genes) have been annotated, and the remaining 34% (736 genes) are assigned as hypothetical proteins. In this work, biochemical and biophysical experiments were performed to characterize the hypothetical protein TTHA1873 from T. thermophilus. The hypothetical protein TTHA1873 acts as a nuclease, which indiscreetly cuts methylated and non‐methylated DNA in divalent metal ions and relaxes the plasmid DNA in the presence of ATP. The chelation of metal ions with EDTA inhibits its activity. These results suggest that the hypothetical protein TTHA1873 would be a CRISPR‐associated protein with non‐specific DNase activity and ATP‐dependent DNA‐relaxing activity.

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The entomopathogenic nematode, Heterorhabditis indica, is a popular biocontrol agent of high commercial significance. It possesses tremendous genetic architecture to survive desiccation stress by undergoing anhydrobiosis to increase its lifespan—an attribute exploited in the formulation technology. The comparative transcriptome of unstressed and anhydrobiotic H. indica revealed several previously concealed metabolic events crucial for adapting towards the moisture stress. During the induction of anhydrobiosis in the infective juveniles (IJ), 1584 transcripts were upregulated and 340 downregulated. As a strategy towards anhydrobiotic survival, the IJ showed activation of several genes critical to antioxidant defense, detoxification pathways, signal transduction, unfolded protein response and molecular chaperones and ubiquitin-proteasome system. Differential expression of several genes involved in gluconeogenesis - β-oxidation of fatty acids, glyoxylate pathway; glyceroneogenesis; fatty acid biosynthesis; amino-acid metabolism - shikimate pathway, sachharopine pathway, kyneurine pathway, lysine biosynthesis; one-carbon metabolism—polyamine pathway, transsulfuration pathway, folate cycle, methionine cycle, nucleotide biosynthesis; mevalonate pathway; and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were also observed. We report the role of shikimate pathway, sachharopine pathway and glyceroneogenesis in anhydrobiotes, and seven classes of repeat proteins, specifically in H. indica for the first time. These results provide insights into anhydrobiotic survival strategies which can be utilized to strengthen the development of novel formulations with enhanced and sustained shelf-life.