Improved and versatile viral 2A platforms for dependable and inducible high-level expression of dicistronic nuclear genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

A significantly improved viral 2A peptide system for dependable high-level expression of dicistronic genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been developed. Data are presented demonstrating that use of an especially proficient 'extended FMDV 2A' coding region allows production of two independent protein products from a dicistronic gene with almost complete efficiency. Importantly, results are also presented that demonstrate the utility of this 2A system for efficient high-level expression of foreign genes in C. reinhardtii, which has not previously been reliably achievable in this algal model system. To expand the versatility of the 2A expression system, a number of commonly used selectable marker proteins were assessed for their compatibility with the extended FMDV 2A peptide. Additional experiments demonstrate the feasibility and utility of 2A-containing dicistronic systems that rely on a strong conditional promoter for transcriptional control and a low-expression marker gene for selection. This strategy allows easy and efficient delivery of genes of interest whose expression levels require regulation either to mitigate potential toxicity or allow differential expression under controlled experimental conditions. Finally, as an additional practical demonstration of the utility of the extended FMDV 2A system, confocal fluorescence microscopy is used to demonstrate that native and foreign proteins of interest bearing post-translational remnants of the extended FMDV 2A peptide localize correctly to various cellular compartments, including a striking demonstration of the almost exclusive localization of the Rubisco small subunit protein to the pyrenoid of the C. reinhardtii chloroplast in cells maintained under ambient CO2 concentrations.

SUMOylation by a stress-specific small ubiquitin-like modifier E2 conjugase is essential for survival of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under stress conditions.

Posttranslational modification of proteins by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) is required for survival of virtually all eukaryotic organisms. Attachment of SUMO to target proteins is catalyzed by SUMO E2 conjugase. All haploid or diploid eukaryotes studied to date possess a single indispensable SUMO conjugase. We report here the unanticipated isolation of a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (mutant5 [mut5]). in which the previously identified SUMO conjugase gene C. reinhardtii ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme9 (CrUBC9) is deleted. This surprising mutant is viable and unexpectedly, displays a pattern of protein SUMOylation at 25°C that is essentially identical to wild-type cells. However, unlike wild-type cells, mut5 fails to SUMOylate a large set of proteins in response to multiple stress conditions, a failure that results in a markedly reduced tolerance or complete lack of tolerance to these stresses. Restoration of expected stress-induced protein SUMOylation patterns as well as normal stress tolerance phenotypes in mut5 cells complemented with a CrUBC9 gene shows that CrUBC9 is an authentic SUMO conjugase and, more importantly, that SUMOylation is essential for cell survival under stress conditions. The presence of bona fide SUMOylated proteins in the mut5 mutant at 25°C can only be explained by the presence of at least one additional SUMO conjugase in C. reinhardtii, a conjugase tentatively identified as CrUBC3. Together, these results suggest that, unlike all other nonpolyploid eukaryotes, there are at least two distinct and functional SUMO E2 conjugases in C. reinhardtii, with a clear division of labor between the two sets: One (CrUBC9) is involved in essential stress-induced SUMOylations, and one (CrUBC3) is involved in housekeeping SUMOylations.

Successful transient expression of Cas9 and single guide RNA genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 system has become a powerful and precise tool for targeted gene modification (e.g., gene knockout and gene replacement) in numerous eukaryotic organisms. Initial attempts to apply this technology to a model, the single-cell alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, failed to yield cells containing edited genes. To determine if the Cas9 and single guide RNA (sgRNA) genes were functional in C. reinhardtii, we tested the ability of a codon-optimized Cas9 gene along with one of four different sgRNAs to cause targeted gene disruption during a 24-h period immediately following transformation. All three exogenously supplied gene targets as well as the endogenous FKB12 (rapamycin sensitivity) gene of C. reinhardtii displayed distinct Cas9/sgRNA-mediated target site modifications as determined by DNA sequencing of cloned PCR amplicons of the target site region. Success in transient expression of Cas9 and sgRNA genes contrasted with the recovery of only a single rapamycin-resistant colony bearing an appropriately modified FKB12 target site in 16 independent transformation experiments involving >10(9) cells. Failure to recover transformants with intact or expressed Cas9 genes following transformation with the Cas9 gene alone (or even with a gene encoding a Cas9 lacking nuclease activity) provided strong suggestive evidence for Cas9 toxicity when Cas9 is produced constitutively in C. reinhardtii. The present results provide compelling evidence that Cas9 and sgRNA genes function properly in C. reinhardtii to cause targeted gene modifications and point to the need for a focus on development of methods to properly stem Cas9 production and/or activity following gene editing.

Expanding the spectral palette of fluorescent proteins for the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have become essential tools for a growing number of fields in biology. However, such tools have not been widely adopted for use in microalgal research. The aim of this study was to express and compare six FPs (blue mTagBFP, cyan mCerulean, green CrGFP, yellow Venus, orange tdTomato and red mCherry) in the popular model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To circumvent the transgene silencing that often occurs in C. reinhardtii, the FPs were expressed from the nuclear genome as transcriptional fusions with the sh-ble antibiotic resistance gene, with the foot and mouth disease virus 2A self-cleaving sequence placed between the coding sequences. All ble-2A-FPs tested are well-expressed and efficiently processed to yield mature, unfused FPs that localize throughout the cytoplasm. The fluorescence signals of each FP were detectable in whole cells by fluorescence microplate reader analysis, live-cell fluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. Furthermore, we report a comparative analysis of fluorescence levels relative to auto-fluorescence for the chosen FPs. Finally, we demonstrate that the ble-2A expression vector may be used to fluorescently label an endogenous protein (α-tubulin). We show that the mCerulean-α-tubulin fusion protein localizes to the cytoskeleton and flagella, as expected, and that cells containing this fusion protein had normal cellular function. Overall, our results indicate that, by use of the ble-2A nuclear expression construct, a wide array of FP tools and technologies may be applied to microalgal research, opening up many possibilities for microalgal biology and biotechnology.