Project description:Different high temperatures adversely affect crop and algal yields with various responses in photosynthetic cells. The list of genes required for thermotolerance remains elusive. Additionally, it is unclear how carbon source availability affects heat responses in plants and algae. We utilized the insertional, indexed, genome-saturating mutant library of the unicellular, eukaryotic green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to perform genome-wide, quantitative, pooled screens under moderate (35oC) or acute (40oC) high temperatures with or without organic carbon sources. We identified heat-sensitive mutants based on quantitative growth rates and identified putative heat tolerance genes (HTGs). By triangulating HTGs with heat-induced transcripts or proteins in wildtype cultures and MapMan functional annotations, we present a high/medium-confidence list of 933 Chlamydomonas genes with putative roles in heat tolerance. Triangulated HTGs include those with known thermotolerance roles and novel genes with little or no functional annotation. About 50% of these high-confidence HTGs in Chlamydomonas have orthologs in green lineage organisms, including crop species. Arabidopsis thaliana mutants deficient in the ortholog of a high-confidence Chlamydomonas HTG were also heat sensitive. This work expands our knowledge of heat responses in photosynthetic cells and provides engineering targets to improve thermotolerance in algae and crops.
Project description:The goal of this analysis was to identify the ribosomal RNA content of the mitochondrial risome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii green alga
Project description:RNA populations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Keywords: Highly parallel pyrosequencing Small RNAs were prepared from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii total extracts,ligated to a 3' adaptor and a 5' acceptor sequentially, and then RT-PCR amplified. PCR products were reamplified using a pair of 454 cloning primers and provided to 454 Life Sciences (Branford, CT) for sequencing. For technical details, see Tao Zhao, Guanglin Li, Shijun Mi, Shan Li, Gregory J. Hannon, Xiu-Jie Wang, and Yijun Qi. 2007. A Complex System of Small RNAs in the Unicellular Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Genes & Development
Project description:This study aims at investigating the link between internalized inorganic or methyl Hg and the global expression of genes, obtained by high-throughput sequencing (RNA-Seq), in the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Algal cells were exposed two hours in a simplified artificial medium spiked with series of inorganic Hg concentrations (0.1, 1, 100 nM Hg) or series of methyl Hg concentrations (0.05, 0.5, 5, 50 nM CH3Hg).
Project description:Liquid cultures of the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were grown in media with 6 uM Mn (control) or 1000 uM Mn (experimental), and analyzed by RNA-Seq to identify genes that are differentially expressed in response to excess Mn.
Project description:This study aims at investigating the link between internalized inorganic or methyl Hg and the global expression of genes, obtained by high-throughput sequencing (RNA-Seq), in the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Algal cells were exposed two hours in a simplified artificial medium spiked with series of inorganic Hg concentrations (0.1, 1, 100 nM Hg) or series of methyl Hg concentrations (0.05, 0.5, 5, 50 nM CH3Hg). Three biological replicates were assessed for each of the 8 tested conditions: Control, 3 Hg concentrations, 4 CH3Hg concentrations.
Project description:The absence of oxygen (O2) is a stress condition for aerobic organisms and requires extensive acclimation responses. Previously, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been used as a reference organism for understanding these acclimation responses. In this work, we use RNA-Seq for a whole genome view of the acclimation of the organism to dark-anoxic conditions. To distinguish the responses dependent on the COPPER RESPONSE REGULATOR 1 (CRR1), which is also involved in hypoxic gene regulation, we compared the transcriptome of crr1 mutants to that of complemented strains. Nearly 10% of the genome (~ 1,400 genes) are affected by hypoxia based on pairwise comparisons of all strains and two time-points. Comparing transcript profiles from early (hypoxic) with those from late (anoxic) time-points indicated that the cells activated oxidative energy generation pathways before employing fermentative enzymes. Probable substrates included not only carbohydrates but also amino acids and fatty acids (FAs). Lipid profiling of the C. reinhardtii cells revealed that they degraded FAs but also accumulated triacylglycerols (TAGs). In contrast to N-deprived cells, the TAGs accumulating in hypoxic cells are enriched in desaturated FAs, which distinguishes the contribution of individual pathways for Chlamydomonas TAG accumulation. In crr1 mutants, about 140 genes were aberrantly regulated , re-affirming the importance of CRR1 for the hypoxic response, but indicating also the contribution of additional O2-sensors and signaling strategies to account for the remaining differentially regulated transcripts. We conclude that nitric oxide (NO) dependent signaling cascades, employing both known and novel components, are operative in C. reinhardtii. The transcriptome of four different Chlamydomonas strains (wild type CC-124, crr1 mutant, crr1:CRR1 rescued strain and crr1dCys rescued strain) are profiled by RNA-Seq in the dark at different times after the transition from light-oxic to dark-anoxic conditions
Project description:The absence of oxygen (O2) is a stress condition for aerobic organisms and requires extensive acclimation responses. Previously, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been used as a reference organism for understanding these acclimation responses. In this work, we use RNA-Seq for a whole genome view of the acclimation of the organism to dark-anoxic conditions. To distinguish the responses dependent on the COPPER RESPONSE REGULATOR 1 (CRR1), which is also involved in hypoxic gene regulation, we compared the transcriptome of crr1 mutants to that of complemented strains. Nearly 10% of the genome (~ 1,400 genes) are affected by hypoxia based on pairwise comparisons of all strains and two time-points. Comparing transcript profiles from early (hypoxic) with those from late (anoxic) time-points indicated that the cells activated oxidative energy generation pathways before employing fermentative enzymes. Probable substrates included not only carbohydrates but also amino acids and fatty acids (FAs). Lipid profiling of the C. reinhardtii cells revealed that they degraded FAs but also accumulated triacylglycerols (TAGs). In contrast to N-deprived cells, the TAGs accumulating in hypoxic cells are enriched in desaturated FAs, which distinguishes the contribution of individual pathways for Chlamydomonas TAG accumulation. In crr1 mutants, about 140 genes were aberrantly regulated , re-affirming the importance of CRR1 for the hypoxic response, but indicating also the contribution of additional O2-sensors and signaling strategies to account for the remaining differentially regulated transcripts. We conclude that nitric oxide (NO) dependent signaling cascades, employing both known and novel components, are operative in C. reinhardtii.