Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun;132(6):4330-4337.
doi: 10.1111/jam.15527. Epub 2022 Apr 1.

Transcriptional responses of Aurantiochytrium limacinum under light conditions

Yuki Kubo  1 , Daichi Morimoto  1 , Mai Shiroi  1 , Toru Yoshimi  1 , Kanta Ohara  1 , Tokuhiro Higashine  1 , Yuki Mori  1 , Masato Takeuchi  1 , Shigeki Sawayama  1
Affiliations

Transcriptional responses of Aurantiochytrium limacinum under light conditions

Yuki Kubo et al. J Appl Microbiol. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Aims: Astaxanthin-producing protist Aurantiochytrium limacinum can accumulate higher amounts of astaxanthin under light conditions; however, little is known about the impact of light exposure on its metabolism. Here, we investigated the transcriptional profile of A. limacinum under light conditions.

Methods and results: Transcriptomic analyses revealed that 962 genes of A. limacinum showed a significant change in expression under light conditions, most of which (94.5%) were downregulated. Furthermore, gene ontology enrichment analysis indicated that A. limacinum mainly downregulated genes associated with cell motility, proliferation and gene expression processes, whose activities depend on ATP as an energy source. Additionally, the quantification of carotenoid and its transcripts suggested that β-carotene and astaxanthin biosynthesis pathways were rate-limiting and tightly regulated steps, respectively. In comparison, these processes were enhanced under light conditions.

Conclusions: Considering that astaxanthin accumulation was highly correlated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in microalgae, our results suggest that A. limacinum reduces ATP consumption to decrease the occurrence of ROS in mitochondria while accumulating astaxanthin to prevent ROS damage.

Significance and impact of study: This study provides novel insights into the impact of light exposure on A. limacinum metabolism, thereby facilitating a complete understanding of this protist for efficient astaxanthin production.

Keywords: Aurantiochytrium limacinum; astaxanthin; light response; microbial physiology; transcriptomics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Aguirre, J., Ríos-Momberg, M., Hewitt, D. & Hansberg, W. (2005) Reactive oxygen species and development in microbial eukaryotes. Trends in Microbiology, 13, 111-118.
    1. Anders, S. & Huber, W. (2010) Differential expression analysis for sequence count data. Genomic Biology, 11, R106.
    1. Berman, J., Zorrilla-López, U., Farré, G., Zhu, C., Sandmann, G., Twyman, R.M. et al. (2015) Nutritionally important carotenoids as consumer products. Phytochemistry Reviews, 14, 727-743.
    1. Birch, E.E., Hoffman, D.R., Uauy, R., Birch, D.G. & Prestidge, C. (1998) Visual acuity and the essentiality of docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid in the diet of term infants. Pediatric Research, 44, 201-209.
    1. Blaby, I.K., Blaby-Haas, C.E., Pérez-Pérez, M.E., Schmollinger, S., Fitz-Gibbon, S., Lemaire, S.D. et al. (2015) Genome-wide analysis on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reveals the impact of hydrogen peroxide on protein stress responses and overlap with other stress transcriptomes. The Plant Journal, 84, 974-988.

MeSH terms

Substances