No abstract

Glycerol, a compatible solute, has previously been found to act as an osmoprotectant in some marine Chlamydomonas species and several species of Dunaliella from hypersaline ponds. Recently, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Dunaliella salina were shown to make glycerol with an unusual bidomain enzyme, which appears to be unique to algae, that contains a phosphoserine phosphatase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Here we report that two psychrophilic species of Chlamydomonas (C. spp. UWO241 and ICE-MDV) from Lake Bonney, Antarctica also produce high levels of glycerol to survive in the lake's saline waters. Glycerol concentration increased linearly with salinity and at 1.3 M NaCl, exceeded 400 mM in C. sp. UWO241, the more salt-tolerant strain. We also show that both species expressed several isoforms of the bidomain enzyme. An analysis of one of the isoforms of C. sp. UWO241 showed that it was strongly upregulated by NaCl and is thus the likely source of glycerol. These results reveal another adaptation of the Lake Bonney Chlamydomonas species that allow them to survive in an extreme polar environment.

Under environmental stress plants and algae employ a variety of strategies to avoid damage to the photosynthetic apparatus and maintain photosynthetic capacity. To date, most studies on stress acclimation have focused on model organisms possessing limited tolerance to elevated stress levels. We compared the long-term acclimatory capacities of a mesophilic alga (Chlamydomonas raudensis SAG 49.72; SAG 49.72) and an Antarctic halotolerant psychrophile (Chlamydomonas sp. UWO 241; UWO 241) by monitoring photobiology, cyclic electron flow (CEF) and ROS defense in cultures acclimated to long-term low temperature, high salinity or high light stress. SAG 49.72 responded to long-term stress by increasing chlorophyll a/b ratio and redistributing absorbed light energy from photosystem II (PSII) to photosystem I (PSI). In contrast, the psychrophile exhibited faster half times for P700+ re-reduction under all treatments, suggesting high CEF rates. High CEF was accompanied by increased capacity for nonphotochemical quenching. Last, UWO 241 exhibited constitutively high activity of two key ascorbate cycle enzymes, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase, as well as a large ascorbate pool. Our results suggest that UWO 241 relies on high PSI-mediated CEF and ROS detoxification to protect the photosynthetic apparatus while minimizing energy expenditure on repairs.