Project description:Biosilicification enhances the mechanical strength and chemical stability of organisms. Diatoms are the natural model for studying cell silicification, with the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum being known as the only species that could transition from non-silicified cells to silicified cells under environmental stress. In this study, single-cell sequencing was employed to investigate the wild-type P. tricornutum strain (WT-Pt) without cell silicification and the engineered strain (SG-Pt) with silicified cells. Our results indicate that SG-Pt exhibits clearly cellular clustering and enhanced iron metabolic function compared to WT-Pt.
Project description:We have done next generation sequencing of optically thin, exponentialy growing Phaeodactylum tricornutum cultures grown with and without nitrogen source to improve our undestanding of the pathways regulation under conditions that promote lipid accumulation (N-starvation). 3 biologically independent exponentially growing culture of Phaeodactylum tricornutum were pelleted and washed several times with N-free media. Each culture was devided to 2 replicates with initial cell concentration of 2X105 cells/mL, one with NaNO3 as nitrogen source and the other without any nitrogen source. The cuture were bubbled foro 48 hours and sampled for transcriptome together with other physiological parameters and lipid analysis.