The widespread marine green alga Micromonas activates novel proteins and an ancient photoprotection mechanism to sustain growth when nutrients are limiting

We investigated the transcriptional responses (RNA-seq) of Micromonas commoda cells in phosphate (P) limited stable exponential growth (using custom-built photo-bioreactors; chemostats). To identify generalized transcriptional responses to growth rate reduction, the responses observed under P limitation were compared with M. commoda responses to nitrogen-depletion (experiment performed in batch cultures).