I wonder what the cost is. If producing a protein that protects against these things was without a downside, it seems likely many species would have selected for it. I feel there must be a downside to it that selects against it in most organisms.
> I think that the single most significant property of the adult tardigrade in relation to stress resistance is that its somatic cells are eutelic, that is, after hatching as an adult, the somatic cells do not divide
Tardigrades are very peculiar in this regard: after hatching, they grow to adult size not by cellular division (mitosis), but by growing the cells (hypertrophy).
If that's the key to their ability to withstand radiation (beyond the effects of 'Dsup'), we humans have no hope of using the same trick.
(Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about, and haven't read the paper.)
> The eggs hatch after no more than 14 days, with the young already possessing their full complement of adult cells. Growth to the adult size therefore occurs by enlargement of the individual cells (hypertrophy), rather than by cell division.