Marine diatoms are known to be responsible for about a quarter of global primary production and their photosynthesis is sustained by inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanisms and/or C 4 metabolism. Activities of the inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanism are attenuated under enriched [CO 2 ]; however, impacts of this factor on primary productivity and the molecular mechanisms of CO 2 responses in marine diatoms are unknown. In this study, transgenic cells were generated of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum by the introduction of a b-glucuronidase reporter gene under the control of an intrinsic CO 2 -responsive promoter, which is the sequence between 280 to 161 relative to the transcription start site of a chloroplasticcarbonic anhydrase gene, ptca1, obtained from P. tricornutum. The activity of the ptca1 promoter was effectively repressed in air-level CO 2 by treating cells with a 1.0 mM cAMP analog, dibutyryl cAMP, or a cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine. Deletion of the intrinsic cAMP-response element from the ptca1 promoter caused a lack of repression of the reporter gene uidA, even under elevated [CO 2 ] and a null phenotype to the strong repressive effects of dibutyryl cAMP and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine on the ptca1 promoter. Deletion of the cAMP-response element was also shown to cause derepression of the uidA reporter gene in the dark. These results indicate that the cytosolic cAMP level increases under elevated [CO 2 ] and represses the ptca1 promoter. This strongly suggests the participation of cAMP metabolism, presumably at the cytosolic level, in controlling CO 2 -acquisition systems under elevated [CO 2 ] at the ocean surface in a marine diatom.Marine diatoms are responsible for one-half of primary productivity in the ocean and hence play a key role in global cycles of carbon and other inorganic nutrients (Tréguer et al., 1995;Falkowski et al., 2000).[CO 2 ] dissolved in seawater is limited under the present atmospheric pCO 2 (below 15 mM at 20°C) that is much lower than the K m [CO 2 ] of Rubisco in diatom species (Badger et al., 1998). This implies that marine diatoms need active uptake and accumulation systems for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) to support their photosynthesis. There is a substantial body of evidence that the operation of the inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) confers on marine diatom cells highaffinity photosynthesis for DIC (Colman and Rotatore, 1995;Johnston and Raven, 1996;Matsuda et al., 2001), which is due to the operation of active uptake of both CO 2 and HCO 2 3 (Colman and Rotatore, 1995;Johnston and Raven, 1996;Matsuda et al., 2001). The activity of the CCM is suppressed under CO 2 -enriched conditions, whereas it is induced in CO 2 -limiting conditions; this regulation is due to CO 2 sensing by algal cells and induction of the CCM facilitates an ample supply of CO 2 to Rubisco even under extreme [CO 2 ] limitation (Badger et al., , 1998Kaplan et al., 1980;Miller et al., 1990;Colman and Rotatore, 1995;Johnston and R...