Lipid turnover through lipophagy in the newly identified extremophilic green microalga Chlamydomonas urium

Summary Autophagy is a central degradative pathway highly conserved among eukaryotes, including microalgae, which remains unexplored in extremophilic organisms. In this study, we described and characterized autophagy in the newly identified extremophilic green microalga Chlamydomonas urium, which wa...

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Published in:The New phytologist 2024-07, Vol.243 (1), p.284-298
Main Authors: Pérez‐Pérez, María Esther, Mallén‐Ponce, Manuel J., Odriozola‐Gil, Yosu, Rubio, Alejandro, Salas, Joaquín J., Martínez‐Force, Enrique, Pérez‐Pulido, Antonio J., Crespo, José L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Aquatic microorganisms
Autophagy
Chlamydomonas
Concanamycin A
Electron microscopy
Eukaryotes
extremophile
Fluctuations
Genes
Genomes
Immunoblotting
Leukocytes (neutrophilic)
lipid
Lipid metabolism
Lipid turnover
Lipids
lipophagy
Metabolism
Metabolomics
microalga
Microalgae
Photosynthesis
Phytoplankton
Transmission electron microscopy
Triglycerides
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Summary:Summary Autophagy is a central degradative pathway highly conserved among eukaryotes, including microalgae, which remains unexplored in extremophilic organisms. In this study, we described and characterized autophagy in the newly identified extremophilic green microalga Chlamydomonas urium, which was isolated from an acidic environment. The nuclear genome of C. urium was sequenced, assembled and annotated in order to identify autophagy‐related genes. Transmission electron microscopy, immunoblotting, metabolomic and photosynthetic analyses were performed to investigate autophagy in this extremophilic microalga. The analysis of the C. urium genome revealed the conservation of core autophagy‐related genes. We investigated the role of autophagy in C. urium by blocking autophagic flux with the vacuolar ATPase inhibitor concanamycin A. Our results indicated that inhibition of autophagic flux in this microalga resulted in a pronounced accumulation of triacylglycerols and lipid droplets (LDs). Metabolomic and photosynthetic analyses indicated that C. urium cells with impaired vacuolar function maintained an active metabolism. Such effects were not observed in the neutrophilic microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Inhibition of autophagic flux in C. urium uncovered an active recycling of LDs through lipophagy, a selective autophagy pathway for lipid turnover. This study provided the metabolic basis by which extremophilic algae are able to catabolize lipids in the vacuole.
ISSN:0028-646X
1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.19811