You are what you eat: The Role of Kleptoplasty in an Antarctic Dinoflagellate

海藻成形术是一种暂时获得和使用来自藻类捕食物的功能性叶绿体的技术，被认为是所有永久光合作用真核生物中发现的永久性内共生来源的叶绿体早期进化的重要模式。这个项目将研究一种丰富的南极甲藻的进化史和叶绿体靶标基因的表达，这种甲藻从一种具有生态意义的重要藻类--棕囊藻--中窃取叶绿体。藻类在南大洋二氧化碳的固定和输出中起着重要的作用，该项目将探索这些嵌合细胞在极端环境功能适应方面的遗传基础，并将研究以叶绿体为靶标的基因在宿主和受体中的进化历史和表达。该项目试图确定甲藻是否利用祖先的质体蛋白来调节其被盗的质体，以及它们的转录与与南大洋环境(温度和光)有关的环境因素有何关系。为了实现这些目标，该项目将利用高通量转录组分析和对甲藻和棕囊藻的RNA测序实验。这项工作将帮助生物学家了解这种替代营养策略在环境方面的成功，并评估人为气候变化对生物体的潜在影响。该项目还将有助于维护科学界可获得的南极异养、光养和混合营养原生生物的培养收藏，并将支持指导一名研究生和一名博士后研究员。这项工作是作为美国和加拿大科学家之间的国际合作完成的，除了在同行评议的期刊上发表结果外，调查人员还将把这项工作的各个方面纳入公共宣传活动。其中包括为中学生提供的实地数据分析机会，以及与当地学校和博物馆合作的基于科学的艺术项目。

Kleptoplasty, the temporary acquisition and use of functional chloroplasts derived from algal prey, is viewed as an important model for the early evolution of the permanent, endosymbiotically-derived chloroplasts found in all permanently photosynthetic eukaryotes. This project will study the evolutionary history and expression of plastid-targeted genes in an abundant Antarctic dinoflagellate that steals chloroplasts from an ecologically important alga, the haptophyte Phaeocystis. Algae play an important role in the fixation and export of CO2 in the Southern Ocean, and this project will explore the genetic basis for the function of these chimeric cells with regard to their functional adaptation to extreme environments and will study the evolutionary history and expression of plastid-targeted genes in both the host and recipient. The project seeks to determine whether the kleptoplastidic dinoflagellate utilizes ancestral plastid proteins to regulate its stolen plastid, and how their transcription is related to environmental factors that are relevant to the Southern Ocean environment (temperature and light). To accomplish these goals, the project will utilize high throughput transcriptome analysis and RNA-sequencing experiments with the dinoflagellate and Phaeocystis. This work will help biologists understand the environmental success of this alternative nutritional strategy, and to assess the potential impact of anthropogenic climate change on the organism. The project will also contribute to the maintenance of a culture collection of heterotrophic, phototrophic and mixotrophic Antarctic protists that are available to the scientific community, and it will support the mentoring of a graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow. The work is being accomplished as an international collaboration between US and Canadian scientists, and in addition to publishing results in peer-reviewed journals, the investigators will incorporate aspects of this work into public outreach activities. These include field data analysis opportunities for middle school students and science-based art projects with local schools and museums.