Elucidating the regulatory network of light harvesting in photoheterotrophic microalgae

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse
• Subject Area: Plant Physiology ; Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 310496771

Light harvesting systems have evolved in plants and green algae, which are adapted to the light intensity and spectral composition encountered in their habitats. These organisms are constantly challenged by a fluctuating light supply and other environmental cues affecting photosynthetic performance. Excess light can be especially harmful, but plants and microalgae are equipped with different acclimation mechanisms to control processing of absorbed sunlight at both photosystems. Many microalgal species are facultative heterotrophs, in which light harvesting capacity is not only adjusted to the prevailing sunlight intensity, but also to the availability of inorganic and organic carbon sources. In this grant project we intend to investigate into distinct control levels that are needed to adjust light harvesting capacity following variations in carbon source as well as light access and rely on a close interaction in between different cellular compartments. In detail we want to deeply elucidate the mechanism(s) controlling light-harvesting protein synthesis, which emerged as a key regulatory process within the acclimation response to altered light and carbon supply. We will focus on LHC translation control as a key element of the regulatory network and the interrelation of this long-term response with major short-term mechanisms to understand the control mechanism for cytosolic LHCII synthesis via nucleus-encoded factors, the crosstalk between chloroplast and cytosol that orchestrates LHCII translation and the integration of short- and long-term photosynthetic acclimation mechanisms for optimizing photosynthetic light capture.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants