Incident light intensities and cellular parameters.

Aureo1a-15 and aureo1a-50P. tricornutum cultures were grown under illumination with blue (BL) and red light (RL) under limiting light (LL, QPhar = 10 µmol absorbed photons m−2 s−1) and medium light (ML, QPhar = 30 µmol absorbed photons m−2 s−1) conditions; corresponding WT data of Schellenberger Costa et al. [28] is included as reference. Chl a per cell is given in pg cell−1, growth rate (µ) in d−1, a*Phy: Chl a specific absorption in m2 g Chl a−1, dry weight is given in pg cell−1 and 1/ΦC: quantum requirement in mol absorbed photons mol fixed C−1. Mean values are shown with standard deviation (n = 3 for 1/ΦC n = 5 to 9 for other parameters). Mean values of aureo1a cultures marked with asterisks (*) are significantly different to the WT culture of the same culturing condition according to one-way ANOVA followed by Holm-Sidak pair wise comparison against WT as control group (p<0.05). O: no significant difference between WT and aureochrome 1a silenced strain; −: significant decrease in aureochrome 1a silenced strain compared to WT; +: significant increase in aureochrome 1a silenced strain compared to WT.