The notable de novo biological process terms are those relating to protein synthesis and repair (Fig 2). This suggests an induction of synthesis of novel protectant proteins that may be needed in the response to the desiccation stress such as antioxidants. Also, the GO biological process ‘protein refolding’ suggests the repair of proteins that have been misfolded or unfolded as a result of desiccation stress. This process is facilitated by molecular chaperones such as the heat shock proteins (HSPs) (Al-Whaibi, 2011). HSPs play an important role in DT as they tend to accumulate universally in resurrection plants during drying (Ingram and Bartels, 1996; Farrant et al., 2007).