Adaptive traits of cysts of the snow alga Sanguina nivaloides unveiled by 3D subcellular imaging.

Sanguina nivaloides is the main alga forming red snowfields in high mountains and Polar Regions. It is non-cultivable. Analysis of environmental samples by X-ray tomography, focused-ion-beam scanning-electron-microscopy, physicochemical and physiological characterization reveal adaptive traits accounting for algal capacity to reside in snow. Cysts populate liquid water at the periphery of ice, are photosynthetically active, can survive for months, and are sensitive to freezing. They harbor a wrinkled plasma membrane expanding the interface with environment. Ionomic analysis supports a cell efflux of K+, and assimilation of phosphorus. Glycerolipidomic analysis confirms a phosphate limitation. The chloroplast contains thylakoids oriented in all directions, fixes carbon in a central pyrenoid and produces starch in peripheral protuberances. Analysis of cells kept in the dark shows that starch is a short-term carbon storage. The biogenesis of cytosolic droplets shows that they are loaded with triacylglycerol and carotenoids for long-term carbon storage and protection against oxidative stress.

An Oil Hyper-Accumulator Mutant Highlights Peroxisomal ATP Import as a Regulatory Step for Fatty Acid Metabolism in Aurantiochytrium limacinum.

Thraustochytrids are marine protists that naturally accumulate triacylglycerol with long chains of polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as ω3-docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). They represent a sustainable response to the increasing demand for these "essential" fatty acids (FAs). Following an attempt to transform a strain of Aurantiochytrium limacinum, we serendipitously isolated a clone that did not incorporate any recombinant DNA but contained two to three times more DHA than the original strain. Metabolic analyses indicated a deficit in FA catabolism. However, whole transcriptome analysis did not show down-regulation of genes involved in FA catabolism. Genome sequencing revealed extensive DNA deletion in one allele encoding a putative peroxisomal adenylate transporter. Phylogenetic analyses and yeast complementation experiments confirmed the gene as a peroxisomal adenylate nucleotide transporter (AlANT1), homologous to yeast ScANT1 and plant peroxisomal adenylate nucleotide carrier AtPNC genes. In yeast and plants, a deletion of the peroxisomal adenylate transporter inhibits FA breakdown and induces FA accumulation, a phenotype similar to that described here. In response to this metabolic event, several compensatory mechanisms were observed. In particular, genes involved in FA biosynthesis were upregulated, also contributing to the high FA accumulation. These results support AlANT1 as a promising target for enhancing DHA production in Thraustochytrids.

A chemical screen identifies two novel small compounds that alter Arabidopsis thaliana pollen tube growth.

BACKGROUND: During sexual reproduction, pollen grains land on the stigma, rehydrate and produce pollen tubes that grow through the female transmitting-tract tissue allowing the delivery of the two sperm cells to the ovule and the production of healthy seeds. Because pollen tubes are single cells that expand by tip-polarized growth, they represent a good model to study the growth dynamics, cell wall deposition and intracellular machineries. Aiming to understand this complex machinery, we used a low throughput chemical screen approach in order to isolate new tip-growth disruptors. The effect of a chemical inhibitor of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol synthases, galvestine-1, was also investigated. The present work further characterizes their effects on the tip-growth and intracellular dynamics of pollen tubes. RESULTS: Two small compounds among 258 were isolated based on their abilities to perturb pollen tube growth. They were found to disrupt in vitro pollen tube growth of tobacco, tomato and Arabidopsis thaliana. We show that these 3 compounds induced abnormal phenotypes (bulging and/or enlarged pollen tubes) and reduced pollen tube length in a dose dependent manner. Pollen germination was significantly reduced after treatment with the two compounds isolated from the screen. They also affected cell wall material deposition in pollen tubes. The compounds decreased anion superoxide accumulation, disorganized actin filaments and RIC4 dynamics suggesting that they may affect vesicular trafficking at the pollen tube tip. CONCLUSION: These molecules may alter directly or indirectly ROP1 activity, a key regulator of pollen tube growth and vesicular trafficking and therefore represent good tools to further study cellular dynamics during polarized-cell growth.

Energetic coupling between plastids and mitochondria drives CO2 assimilation in diatoms.

Diatoms are one of the most ecologically successful classes of photosynthetic marine eukaryotes in the contemporary oceans. Over the past 30 million years, they have helped to moderate Earth's climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sequestering it via the biological carbon pump and ultimately burying organic carbon in the lithosphere. The proportion of planetary primary production by diatoms in the modern oceans is roughly equivalent to that of terrestrial rainforests. In photosynthesis, the efficient conversion of carbon dioxide into organic matter requires a tight control of the ATP/NADPH ratio which, in other photosynthetic organisms, relies principally on a range of plastid-localized ATP generating processes. Here we show that diatoms regulate ATP/NADPH through extensive energetic exchanges between plastids and mitochondria. This interaction comprises the re-routing of reducing power generated in the plastid towards mitochondria and the import of mitochondrial ATP into the plastid, and is mandatory for optimized carbon fixation and growth. We propose that the process may have contributed to the ecological success of diatoms in the ocean.

Metabolic transformation of microalgae due to light acclimation and genetic modifications followed by laser ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry with ion mobility separation.

Metabolic profiling of various microalga species and their genetic variants, grown under varied environmental conditions, has become critical to accelerate the exploration of phytoplankton biodiversity and biology. The accumulation of valuable metabolites, such as glycerolipids, is also sought in microalgae for biotechnological applications ranging from food, feed, medicine, cosmetics to bioenergy and green chemistry. In this report we describe the direct analysis of metabolites and lipids in small cell populations of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, using laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) mass spectrometry (MS) coupled with ion mobility separation (IMS). These microorganisms are capable of redirecting energy storage pathways from starch to neutral lipids depending on environmental conditions and nutrient availability. Metabolite and lipid productions were monitored in wild type (WT), and genetically modified C. reinhardtii strains with an impaired starch pathway. Lipids, such as triacylglycerols (TAG) and diacylglyceryl-N,N,N-trimethylhomoserine (DGTS), were monitored over time under altered light conditions. More than 200 ions related to metabolites, e.g., arginine, cysteine, serine, palmitate, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, etc., were detected. The lipid profiles at different light intensities for strains with impaired starch pathway (Sta1 and Sta6) contained 26 glycerolipids, such as DGTS, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG), as well as 33 TAG species. Results were obtained over a 72 hour time period under high and low light conditions for the WT species and the two mutants. Our results indicate that LAESI-IMS-MS can be utilized for the rapid analysis of increased TAG production at elevated light intensities. Compared to WT, the Sta6 strain showed 2.5 times higher lipid production at 72 hours under high light conditions. The results demonstrate our ability to rapidly observe numerous changes in metabolite and lipid levels in microalgal population. These capabilities are expected to facilitate the exploration of genetically altered microalgal strains for biofuel production.

The selective biotin tagging and thermolysin proteolysis of chloroplast outer envelope proteins reveals information on protein topology and association into complexes.

The understanding of chloroplast function requires the precise localization of proteins in each of its sub-compartments. High-sensitivity mass spectrometry has allowed the inventory of proteins in thylakoid, stroma, and envelope fractions. Concerning membrane association, proteins can be either integral or peripheral or even soluble proteins bound transiently to a membrane complex. We sought a method providing information at the surface of the outer envelope membrane (OEM), based on specific tagging with biotin or proteolysis using thermolysin, a non-membrane permeable protease. To evaluate this method, envelope, thylakoid, and stroma proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis and analyzed by immunostaining and mass spectrometry. A short selection of proteins associated to the chloroplast envelope fraction was checked after superficial treatments of intact chloroplasts. We showed that this method could allow the characterization of OEM embedded proteins facing the cytosol, as well as peripheral and soluble proteins associated via tight or lose interactions. Some stromal proteins were associated with biotinylated spots and analyzes are still needed to determine whether polypeptides were tagged prior import or if they co-migrated with OEM proteins. This method also suggests that some proteins associated with the inner envelope membrane (IEM) might need the integrity of a trans-envelope (IEM-OEM) protein complex (e.g., division ring-forming components) or at least an intact OEM partner. Following this evaluation, proteomic analyzes should be refined and the putative role of inter-membrane space components stabilizing trans-envelope complexes demonstrated. For future comprehensive studies, perspectives include the dynamic analyses of OEM proteins and IEM-OEM complexes in various physiological contexts and using virtually any other purified membrane organelle.

The plastid division proteins, FtsZ1 and FtsZ2, differ in their biochemical properties and sub-plastidial localization.

Plastid division in higher plants is morphologically similar to bacterial cell division, with a process termed binary fission involving constriction of the envelope membranes. FtsZ proteins involved in bacterial division are also present in higher plants, in which the ftsZ genes belong to two distinct families: ftsZ1 and ftsZ2. However, the roles of the corresponding proteins FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 in plastid division have not been determined. Here we show that the expression of plant FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 in bacteria has different effects on cell division, and that distinct protein domains are involved in the process. We have studied the assembly of purified FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 using a chemical cross-linking approach followed by PAGE and electron microscopy analyses of the resulting polymers. This has revealed that FtsZ1 is capable of forming long rod-shaped polymers and rings similar to the bacterial FtsZ structures, whereas FtsZ2 does not form any organized polymer. Moreover, using purified sub-plastidial fractions, we show that both proteins are present in the stroma, and that a subset of FtsZ2 is tightly bound to the purified envelope membranes. These results indicate that FtsZ2 has a localization pattern distinct from that of FtsZ1, which can be related to distinct properties of the proteins. From the results presented here, we propose a model for the sequential topological localization and functions of green plant FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 in chloroplast division.