A genome-wide CRISPR screen reveals how diatoms thrive in dynamic light.
Doenier J, Tolleter D, Frail S, Finazzi G, Burlacot A
Crispr
Every breath you take owes something to diatoms: these single-celled algae produce as much oxygen as all the world's rainforests combined, and understanding how they stay photosynthetically robust in choppy, cloud-shadowed seas is essential to predicting how ocean productivity holds up as climate patterns shift.
Diatoms are tiny, glass-shelled algae that blanket the ocean and produce a huge share of the world's oxygen — but scientists didn't fully understand how they handle the constantly shifting light they experience as waves mix them up and down. Researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR to switch off thousands of genes one at a time and watch which ones diatoms needed to survive flickering light. They found a previously unknown gene, STROBE1, that acts like a power-management switch, helping diatoms protect themselves when light surges suddenly.
Key Findings
A genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum identified a broad set of genes specifically required for survival under fluctuating and high-light conditions.
Genes involved in cyclic electron flow (CEF) — a photosynthetic safety valve — and in chemically modifying carbon-fixation enzymes were among the most critical for dynamic-light survival.
A newly characterized gene, STROBE1, found only in red-lineage algae (not in land plants), was shown to boost cyclic electron flow and is required for building the proton gradient that protects the photosynthetic machinery during light spikes.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists built the first genome-wide genetic screening tool for diatoms — microscopic ocean algae responsible for roughly 20% of Earth's photosynthesis — and used it to discover how these organisms survive rapidly changing light conditions in the ocean.
Abstract Preview
Diatoms are a highly diverse algal group with outsized impact on global primary production and marine carbon sequestration. They are red lineage phototrophs of complex endosymbiotic origin and ther...
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