Functional analysis of Photosystem I light-harvesting complexes (Lhca) gene products of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The outer antenna system of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Photosystem I is composed of nine gene products, but due to difficulty in purification their individual properties are not known. In this work, the functional properties of the nine Lhca antennas of Chlamydomonas, have been investigated upon expression of the apoproteins in bacteria and refolding in vitro of the pigment-protein complexes. It is shown that all Lhca complexes have a red-shifted fluorescence emission as compared to the antenna complexes of Photosystem II, similar to Lhca from higher plants, but less red-shifted. Three complexes, namely Lhca2, Lhca4 and Lhca9, exhibit emission maxima above 707 nm and all carry an asparagine as ligand for Chl 603. The comparison of the protein sequences and the biochemical/spectroscopic properties of the refolded Chlamydomonas complexes with those of the well-characterized Arabidopsis thaliana Lhcas shows that all the Chlamydomonas complexes have a chromophore organization similar to that of A. thaliana antennas, particularly to Lhca2, despite low sequence identity. All the major biochemical and spectroscopic properties of the Lhca complexes have been conserved through the evolution, including those involved in "red forms" absorption. It has been proposed that in Chlamydomonas PSI antenna size and polypeptide composition can be modulated in vivo depending on growth conditions, at variance as compared to higher plants. Thus, the different properties of the individual Lhca complexes can be functional to adapt the architecture of the PSI-LHCI supercomplex to different environmental conditions.

Mutagenesis and phenotypic selection as a strategy toward domestication of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strains for improved performance in photobioreactors.

Microalgae have a valuable potential for biofuels production. As a matter of fact, algae can produce different molecules with high energy content, including molecular hydrogen (H(2)) by the activity of a chloroplastic hydrogenase fueled by reducing power derived from water and light energy. The efficiency of this reaction, however, is limited and depends from an intricate relationships between oxygenic photosynthesis and mitochondrial respiration. The way toward obtaining algal strains with high productivity in photobioreactors requires engineering of their metabolism at multiple levels in a process comparable to domestication of crops that were derived from their wild ancestors through accumulation of genetic traits providing improved productivity under conditions of intensive cultivation as well as improved nutritional/industrial properties. This holds true for the production of any biofuels from algae: there is the need to isolate multiple traits to be combined and produce organisms with increased performances. Among the different limitations in H(2) productivity, we identified three with a major relevance, namely: (i) the light distribution through the mass culture; (ii) the strong sensitivity of the hydrogenase to even very low oxygen concentrations; and (iii) the presence of alternative pathways, such as the cyclic electron transport, competing for reducing equivalents with hydrogenase and H(2) production. In order to identify potentially favorable mutations, we generated a collection of random mutants in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii which were selected through phenotype analysis for: (i) a reduced photosynthetic antenna size, and thus a lower culture optical density; (ii) an altered photosystem II activity as a tool to manipulate the oxygen concentration within the culture; and (iii) State 1-State 2 transition mutants, for a reduced cyclic electron flow and maximized electrons flow toward the hydrogenase. Such a broad approach has been possible thanks to the high throughput application of absorption/fluorescence optical spectroscopy methods. Strong and weak points of this approach are discussed.