The Ratio of Silicon to Chitin in Diatom Cell Walls Influences Their Resilience to Environmental Stress

Hao, Mengyuan, You, Runyu, Jiang, Zhouyi, Liu, Linwei, Huang, Lu, Mock, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9604-0362, Shen, Naikun and Liang, Junrong (2026) The Ratio of Silicon to Chitin in Diatom Cell Walls Influences Their Resilience to Environmental Stress. Research, 9. ISSN 2096-5168

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Abstract

The diatom cell wall is a critically protective barrier against biotic and abiotic stress, yet the mechanisms by which its individual components confer resilience remain elusive. Using the model diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, we show that resting cells chemically remodel their cell wall by increasing the ratio of silicon to chitin. Our integrative approach, based on a combination of transcriptomics, cell biology, and reverse genetics, reveals that the girdle-band-associated protein cingulin W2 (CinW2) directly regulates the biochemical cell wall composition, driving a “high silicon–low chitin” phenotype under abiotic and biotic stress. The regulation of the gene encoding CinW2 is controlled by an AP2-family transcription factor (AP2-1) that also modulates a chitinase, thereby orchestrating the compositional shift. This shift supporting a silicon-rich frustule provides enhanced structural reinforcement, substantially improving the resilience of T. pseudonana under biotic and abiotic stress. Tara Oceans metatranscriptome data suggest that genes involved in adjusting the ratio of silicon to chitin are widespread across diatom lineages and their expression appears to be responsive to changing environmental conditions in surface oceans. Although the CinW2-mediated regulatory mechanism has been identified only in the genus Thalassiosira, we have identified coregulated homologs in diverse diatom lineages. Collectively, our data therefore suggest that the molecular mechanism by which T. pseudonana modulates key cell wall components might represent a common strategy to cope with challenging environmental conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2026 Mengyuan Hao et al.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	general,das in place,the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials. ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000
Faculty \ School:	University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Wolfson Centre for Advanced Environmental Microbiology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2026 16:42
Last Modified:	29 Oct 2026 00:08
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104889
DOI:	10.34133/research.1452

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