GNPS - Heat sensitivity in the Antarctic green alga Chlamydomonas priscui

Chlamydomonas priscui (previously sp. UWO241) is a green alga isolated from the ice-covered Antarctic Lake Bonney, where it thrives in a permanently cold, low light and hypersaline environment. We propose a multi-omics approach to investigate how this obligate cold extremophile (psychrophile) responds to high temperature stress stress. We will examine the role of salinity and light intensity on temperature resilience in C. priscui. We have shown that C. priscuii acclimated to high salinity and low light (HS-LL; similar to its natural habitat) exhibits significantly slower rates of heat-induced cell death, when compared to cultures acclimated to predicted climate change conditions accompanied with increased light or decreased salinity. We will examine the molecular basis of this response. Algae will be grown photoautotrophically at 4°C with continuous light to mimic the polar day and acclimated to the four defined conditions, adjusting salinity and light. Mid-log phase cultures will be exposed to short-term stress at 24°C for 12h, followed by 24h recovery at 4°C.

The work (proposal:https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60008464) conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (https://ror.org/04xm1d337), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.