Chemistry Commons^™

Functional Photosystem I Maintains Proper Energy Balance During Nitrogen Depletion In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Promoting Triacylglycerol Accumulation, Mahmoud Gargouri, Philip D. Bates, Jeong-Jin Park, Helmut Kirchhoff, David R. Gang

Faculty Publications

Background

Nutrient deprivation causes significant stress to the unicellular microalga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which responds by significantly altering its metabolic program. Following N deprivation, the accumulation of starch and triacylglycerols (TAGs) is significantly altered following massive reprogramming of cellular metabolism. One protein that was found to change dramatically and early to this stress was TAB2, a photosystem I (PSI) translation initiation factor, whose transcript and protein levels increased significantly after only 30 min of N deprivation. A detailed physiological and omics-based analysis of an insertional mutant of Chlamydomonas with reduced TAB2 function was conducted to determine what role the functional …