Project description:Time series microarray analysis on the photosynthetic ciliate was conducted using an oligochip containing 15,654 genes designed from Teleaulax amphioxeia ESTs
Project description:The enslavement of foreign organelles by protists for metabolic gain is a common phenomenon within aquatic ecosystems. Ciliates belonging to the Mesodinium rubrum species complex are unique in that they also steal a transcriptionally active prey nucleus, the kleptokaryon, from certain cryptophytes, enabling control and replication of stolen plastids and other organelles. Here we show that kleptokaryon-containing M. rubrum undergo the process of photoacclimation, changing pigment concentrations in response to light in a manner similar to their cryptophyte prey, Geminigera cryophila. The proteome and transcriptome of the G. cryophila nucleus were analyzed in M. rubrum (i.e. kleptokaryon) and in the free-living cryptophyte under changing light conditions.
Project description:Kleptoplastic mixotrophic species of the genus Dinophysis are cultured by feeding with the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum, itself a kleptoplastic mixotroph, that in turn feeds on cryptophytes of the Teleaulax/Plagioselmis/Geminigera (TPG) clade. Optimal culture media for phototrophic growth of D. acuminata and D. acuta from the Galician Rías (northwest Spain) and culture media and cryptophyte prey for M.rubrum from Huelva (southwest Spain) used to feed Dinophysis, were investigated. Phototrophic growth rates and yields were maximal when D. acuminata and D. acuta were grown in ammonia-containing K(-Si) medium versus f/2(-Si) or L1(-Si) media. Dinophysis acuminata cultures were scaled up to 18 L in a photobioreactor. Large differences in cell toxin quota were observed in the same Dinophysis strains under different experimental conditions. Yields and duration of exponential growth were maximal for M. rubrum from Huelva when fed Teleaulax amphioxeia from the same region, versus T. amphioxeia from the Galician Rías or T. minuta and Plagioselmis prolonga. Limitations for mass cultivation of northern Dinophysis strains with southern M. rubrum were overcome using more favorable (1:20) Dinophysis: Mesodinium ratios. These subtleties highlight the ciliate strain-specific response to prey and its importance to mass production of M. rubrum and Dinophysis cultures.