PubMed · 2026-06-17
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.
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.