Project description:Arthrospira is an edible cyanobacterium used in the food supplement “Spirulina”. The aim of this work was to characterise its response to ionising radiation. Live cells of Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 were irradiated with 60Co gamma rays. Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 recovered and resumed photosynthetic proliferation after exposure to a dose of even 6400 Gy, which is a dose about 1000x higher than the lethal dose for most plant, animal and human cells. Biochemical, proteomic and transcriptomic analysis after irradiation with 3200 or 5000 Gy showed a strong reduction in photosynthesis activity and reduced pigment content. Irradiated cells showed reduced transcription for carbon fixation, and for pigment, lipid and secondary metabolite synthesis; while induced transcription of thiol-based antioxidant systems, photosensing and signalling pathways. Cells irradiated with 3200 or 5000 Gy did not show clear dsDNA damage, but transcriptomics did show significant activation of ssDNA repair systems and mobile genetic elements at RNA-level. Irradiated cells also expressed a group of conserved proteins of which the function in radiation resistance remains to be elucidated. This study revealed for the first time the high radiation resistance of Arthrospira, and the molecular systems involved, paving the way for its further exploitation for radiation protection.
Project description:Trade-off between growth and carbohydrate accumulation in nutrient-limited Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 studied by integrating transcriptomic and proteomic approaches
Project description:Two morphotypes of Limnospira indica (formerly Arthrospira sp.) strain PCC 8005, denoted as P2 (straight trichomes) and P6 (helical trichomes), were subjected to chronic gamma radiation from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods at a dose rate of ca. 80 Gy.h-1 for one mass doubling period under continuous light with photoautotrophic metabolism fully active. Samples were taken for post-irradiation growth recovery and RNAseq transcriptional analysis at approximate time in-tervals of 15, 40, and 71.5 hrs corresponding to cumulative doses of ca. 1450, 3200, and 5700 Gy, respectively. Both morphotypes, which were previously reported to display different antioxidant capacities and differ at the genomic level in 168 SNPs, 48 indels and 4 large insertions (Yadav et al., 2019), recovered equally well from 1450 and 3200 Gy. However, while the P2 straight type recov-ered from 5700 Gy by regaining normal growth within 6 days, the P6 helical type took about 13 days to recover from this dose, indicating differences in their radiation tolerance and response. To investigate these differences, P2 and P6 cells exposed to the intermediate dose of gamma radiation (3200 Gy) were analyzed for differential gene expression by RNAseq analysis. A total of 1553 genes (887 and 666 of P2 and P6, respectively, with 352 genes in common) were selected based on a two-fold change in expression and a false discovery rate FDR smaller or equal to 0.05. About 85% of these 1553 genes encoded products of yet unknown function. Of the 229 remaining genes, 171 had a defined function while 58 genes were transcribed into non-coding RNA including 21 tRNAs (all downregulated). From PCC 8005-P2 and PCC 8005-P6 expression patterns it emerges that although the cellular routes used by the two sub strains to cope with ionizing radiation do overlap to a large extent, both strains displayed a distinct preference of priorities likely brought about by marginal differences in their genetic backgrounds. Small inoculants (1 mL) of irradiated and non-irradiated L. indica cultures were grown in 30 mL of fresh Zarrouk media in T-75 tissue flasks (Thermofisher Scientific). All cultures were grown in triplicates per exposed dose with their respective non-irradiated cultures under standard laboratory conditions. Recovery was followed at OD750 every alternate day for a period of 30 days. The proliferation curve was plotted as OD750 versus time using Graphpad Prism v7 (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, California, USA – https://www.graphpad.com/) Triplicates of a non-irradiated control per dose were kept at otherwise analogous conditions in the lab. The L. indica P2 and P6 culture samples were collected in time in-tervals at three prechosen time points T1 to T3 of exposure (~15, ~40, and ~71.5h) corresponding to approximate cumulative doses of respectively 1450, 3200, and 5700 Gy, with the actual doses for the individual samples determined by dosimetry using Harwell Amber-3042 radiation-sensitive polymethylmethacrylate dosimeters attached to the cul-ture tubes. Genes were considered as being differentially expressed if they abided to the selection criteria: -1 >= log2FC >= 1, with an FDR equal or below 0.05 for both options.
Project description:Cyanobacteria have a strong potential for biofuel production due to their ability to accumulate large amounts of carbohydrates. Nitrogen (N) stress can be used to increase the content of carbohydrates in the biomass, but it is expected to reduce biomass productivity. To study this trade-off between carbohydrate accumulation and biomass productivity, we characterized the biomass productivity, biomass composition as well as the transcriptome and proteome of the cyanobacterium Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 cultured under N-limiting and N-replete conditions. N limitation resulted in a large increase in the carbohydrate content of the biomass (from 14 to 74%) and a decrease in the protein content (from 37 to 10%). Nevertheless, it did not affect the biomass productivity of the culture up to five days after N was depleted from the culture medium. Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis indicated that de novo protein synthesis was down-regulated in the N-limited culture. Proteins were degraded and partly converted into carbohydrates through gluconeogenesis. Cellular N derived from protein degradation was recycled through the TCA and GS-GOGAT cycles. In addition, photosynthetic energy production and carbon fixation were both down-regulated, while glycogen synthesis was up-regulated. Our results suggested that N limitation resulted in a redirection of photosynthetic energy from protein synthesis to glycogen synthesis. The fact that glycogen synthesis has a lower energy demand than protein synthesis might explain why Arthrospira is able to achieve a similar biomass productivity under N-limited as under N-replete conditions despite the fact that photosynthetic energy production was impaired by N limitation.
Project description:Two morphotypes of the cyanobacterial Limnospira indica (formerly Arthrospira sp.) strain PCC 8005, denoted as P2 (straight trichomes) and P6 (helical trichomes), were subjected to chronic gamma radiation from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods at a dose rate of ca. 80 Gy·h-1 for one mass doubling period (approximately 3 days) under continuous light with photoautotrophic metabolism fully active. Samples were taken for post-irradiation growth recovery and RNA-Seq transcriptional analysis at time intervals of 15, 40, and 71.5 h corresponding to cumulative doses of ca. 1450, 3200, and 5700 Gy, respectively. Both morphotypes, which were previously reported by us to display different antioxidant capacities and differ at the genomic level in 168 SNPs, 48 indels and 4 large insertions, recovered equally well from 1450 and 3200 Gy. However, while the P2 straight type recovered from 5700 Gy by regaining normal growth within 6 days, the P6 helical type took about 13 days to recover from this dose, indicating differences in their radiation tolerance and response. To investigate these differences, P2 and P6 cells exposed to the intermediate dose of gamma radiation (3200 Gy) were analyzed for differential gene expression by RNA-Seq analysis. Prior to batch normalization, a total of 1553 genes (887 and 666 of P2 and P6, respectively, with 352 genes in common) were selected based on a two-fold change in expression and a false discovery rate FDR smaller or equal to 0.05. About 85% of these 1553 genes encoded products of yet unknown function. Of the 229 remaining genes, 171 had a defined function while 58 genes were transcribed into non-coding RNA including 21 tRNAs (all downregulated). Batch normalization resulted in 660 differentially expressed genes with 98 having a function and 32 encoding RNA. From PCC 8005-P2 and PCC 8005-P6 expression patterns, it emerges that although the cellular routes used by the two substrains to cope with ionizing radiation do overlap to a large extent, both strains displayed a distinct preference of priorities.
Project description:The edible cyanobacterium Arthrospira is highly resistant to ionising radiation. How theses cells can escape, protect or repair the radiation damage is not known, and requires additional molecular investigation. Therefore, in this study, Arthrospira cells were shortly exposed to different doses of 60Co gamma rays and the dynamic response of Arthrospira cells to irradiation was investigated by monitoring its gene expression and cell physiology, after irradiation. The dynamic transcriptome and associated physiological traits showed clearly two events: (1) an intense global emergency response with general reprogramming of carbon and energy metabolism and (2) a recovery period. Genes expressed during early response indicated a reduction of photosynthesis and reduced tricarboxilic acid (TCA) and Calvin Benson Cycles, while a likely activation of pentose phosphate pathway. Activation of biosynthesis of additional carbon storage molecules, compatible solutes, vitamins and sugars transport occurred after irradiation. In addition the cells enhance the restoration of the redox homeostasis. The repair mechanism of Arthrospira cells involve mainly proteases for cellular cleaning and removal of damaged proteins, single strand DNA repair and restriction modification system. During recovery, Arthrospira relies on the powerful antioxidant Glutathione molecule, for ROS detoxification. The exposed cells expressed during recovery period also again highly the arh genes, coding for a group of novel proteins which were detected in our previous irradiation studies, which confirms our hypothesis that they are a key element in the radiation resistance and merit further detailed investigation. This study provides new insights into phasic response and the cellular pathways involved the radiation resistance of microbial cells, in particularly for photosynthetic organisms as the cyanobacterium Arthrospira.