Project description:The process of calcium carbonate biomineralization has arisen multiple times during metazoan evolution. In the phylum Cnidaria, biomineralization has mostly been studied in the subclass Hexacorallia (i.e. stony corals) in comparison to the subclass Octocorallia (i.e. red corals); the two diverged approximately 600 million years ago. The precious Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum, is an octocorallian species, which produces two distinct high-magnesium calcite biominerals, the axial skeleton and the sclerites. In order to gain insight into the red coral biomineralization process and cnidarian biomineralization evolution, we studied the protein repertoire forming the organic matrix (OM) of its two biominerals. We combined High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and transcriptome analysis to study the OM composition of the axial skeleton and the sclerites. We identified a total of 102 OM proteins, 52 are shared between the two red coral biominerals with scleritin being the most abundant protein in each fraction. Contrary to reef building corals, the red coral is collagen-rich (10 collagen-like proteins). Agrin-like glycoproteins and proteins with sugar-binding domains are also predominant. Twenty-seven and 23 proteins were uniquely assigned to the axial skeleton and the sclerites, respectively. Their inferred regulatory function suggests that the difference between the two biominerals rather relies on the modeling of the matrix network than on specific structural components. At least one OM component appears to have been horizontally transferred from prokaryotes early during Octocorallia evolution. Our results support the view that calcification of the red coral axial skeleton likely represents a secondary calcification of an ancestral gorgonian horny axis. In addition, the comparison with stony coral skeletomes highlighted the low proportion of similar proteins between the biomineral OMs of hexacorallian and octocorallian corals, suggesting an independent acquisition of calcification in anthozoans.
Project description:In the present study, the susceptibility of the purple pigmented photosynthetic alphaproteobacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum S1H to gamma irradiation was investigated and its molecular response was characterised by means of gene expression analysis. R. rubrum S1H appears to be about 4 times more sensitive than the model strain Escherichia coli MG1655 to cobalt-60 gamma irradiation. Whole genome response of R. rubrum to 25 Gy revealed the common expression of SOS response related genes in both rich and minimal media. Quantitative expression of the lexA gene was followed after various recovery time following gamma irradiation and showed differential gene expression pattern between minimal and rich medium. This work paves the way for forthcoming molecular studies on the effect of ionizing radiation on R. rubrum S1H and the other MELiSSA strains. Keywords: Rhodospirillum rubrum; ionizing radiation tolerance; microarray; quantitative PCR.