SGER: Iron Fertilization of Oceanic Phytoplankton: A Molecular of Chloroplast Gene Response

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Iron plays a critical role in the maintenance of cell metabolism as phytoplankton appear to regulate intracellular iron concentrations. However, at present no one has conducted molecular studies on the effects of iron deprivation on the genes that encode proteins of photosystem II, Calvin cycle enzyme, and light harvesting chlorophyll. This project will determine how chloroplast gene expression is regulated by iron (Fe++) in the eukaryotic marine alga, Olisthodiscus luteus. This alga, which is ecologically significant in toxic algal blooms yet essentially unstudied at the molecular level, will serve as a model system to address critical physiological and ecological questions in other marine algae. The work will provide critical information on how specific genes regulate these proteins at the transcription or post-transcription level in response to iron as an environmental cue. If successful, future work will focus on factors that impose transcription control or those that influence RNA stability and/or selective utilization of specific RNA species.