A role for the cell-wall protein silacidin in cell size of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana

Kirkham, Amy, Richthammer, Patrick, Schmidt, Katrin, Wustman, Martin, Maeda, Yoshiaki, Hedrich, Rene, Brunner, Eike, Tanaka, Tsuyoshi, van Pee, Karl-Heinz, Falciatore, Angela and Mock, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9604-0362 (2017) A role for the cell-wall protein silacidin in cell size of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. The ISME Journal, 11 (11). pp. 2452-2464. ISSN 1751-7362

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Abstract

Diatoms contribute 20% of global primary production and form the basis of many marine food webs. Although their species diversity correlates with broad diversity in cell size, there is also an intraspecific cell-size plasticity due to sexual reproduction and varying environmental conditions. However, despite the ecological significance of the diatom cell size for food-web structure and global biogeochemical cycles, our knowledge about genes underpinning the size of diatom cells remains elusive. Here, a combination of reverse genetics, experimental evolution and comparative RNA8 sequencing analyses enabled us to identify a previously unknown genetic control of cell size in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. In particular, the targeted deregulation of the expression of the cell-wall protein silacidin caused a significant increase in valve diameter. Remarkably, the natural downregulation of the silacidin gene transcript due to experimental evolution under low temperature also correlated with cell-size increase. Our data give first evidence for a genetically controlled regulation of cell size in Thalassiosira pseudonana and possibly other centric diatoms as they also encode the silacidin gene in their genomes.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	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 > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Resources, Sustainability and Governance (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2017 05:03
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:46
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64178
DOI:	10.1038/ismej.2017.100

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