Journal
PLANT AND CELL PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 60, Issue 3, Pages 702-712Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcy240
Keywords
Cold stress; Galdieria sulphuraria; Horizontal gene transfer; RNA-Seq; Systems biology; Thermoacidophilic red alga
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [FOR 1261-2, WE2231/11-1]
- Excellence Cluster CEPLAS [EXC 1028]
- Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service) [57063099]
- National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Galdieria sulphuraria is a unicellular red alga that lives in hot, acidic, toxic metal-rich, volcanic environments, where few other organisms survive. Its genome harbors up to 5% of genes that were most likely acquired through horizontal gene transfer. These genes probably contributed to G.sulphuraria's adaptation to its extreme habitats, resulting in today's polyextremophilic traits. Here, we applied RNA-sequencing to obtain insights into the acclimation of a thermophilic organism towards temperatures below its growth optimum and to study how horizontally acquired genes contribute to cold acclimation. A decrease in growth temperature from 42C/46C to 28C resulted in an upregulation of ribosome biosynthesis, while excreted proteins, probably components of the cell wall, were downregulated. Photosynthesis was suppressed at cold temperatures, and transcript abundances indicated that C-metabolism switched from gluconeogenesis to glycogen degradation. Folate cycle and S-adenosylmethionine cycle (one-carbon metabolism) were transcriptionally upregulated, probably to drive the biosynthesis of betaine. All these cold-induced changes in gene expression were reversible upon return to optimal growth temperature. Numerous genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer displayed temperature-dependent expression changes, indicating that these genes contributed to adaptive evolution in G.sulphuraria.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available