AUTHOR=Xing Jiale , Liu Peng , Zhao Lei , Huang Fang 

TITLE=Deletion of CGLD1 Impairs PSII and Increases Singlet Oxygen Tolerance of Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2017.02154

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2017.02154

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>The green alga <italic>Chlamydomonas reinhardtii</italic> is a key model organism for studying photosynthesis and oxidative stress in unicellular eukaryotes. Using a forward genetics approach, we have identified and characterized a mutant <italic>x32</italic>, which lacks a predicted protein named CGLD1 (Conserved in Green Lineage and Diatom 1) in GreenCut2, under normal and stress conditions. We show that loss of CGLD1 resulted in minimal photoautotrophic growth and PSII activity in the organism. We observed reduced amount of PSII complex and core subunits in the <italic>x32</italic> mutant based on blue-native (BN)/PAGE and immunoblot analysis. Moreover, <italic>x32</italic> exhibited increased sensitivity to high-light stress and altered tolerance to different reactive oxygenic species (ROS) stress treatments, i.e., decreased resistance to H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>/or tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (t-BOOH) and increased tolerance to neutral red (NR) and rose bengal (RB) that induce the formation of singlet oxygen, respectively. Further analysis via quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) indicated that the increased singlet-oxygen tolerance of <italic>x32</italic> was largely correlated with up-regulated gene expression of glutathione-<italic>S</italic>-transferases (GST). The phenotypical and physiological implications revealed from our experiments highlight the important roles of CGLD1 in maintaining structure and function of PSII as well as in protection of Chlamydomonas under photo-oxidative stress conditions.</p>