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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1527439
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Ecophysiology: Responses to Climate Changes and Stress Conditions View all 25 articles
Effects of the skp1 gene of the SCF complex on lipid metabolism and response to abiotic stress in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, Hainan Province, China
- 2 Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
Bio-diesel derived from microalgae has gained popularity due to several advantages over crude oil extraction and refining. Protein ubiquitination is an important mechanism in eukaryotes that regulates physiological responses and cell development, and it is highly relevant to algal biodiesel production. SKP1 (S-phase kinase-associated protein 1) is a key member of the SCF (SKP1-Cullin1-F-box) E3 ligase complex. The SCF complex is involved in regulating various levels of plant physiology, including regulation of cellular signaling and response to abiotic stresses. While the function of SKP1 in plants is well known, its function in algae remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii skp1 gene using RNAi interference and overexpression approaches. Subcellular localisation of SKP1 was performed by transient expression in onion epidermal cells. For abiotic stress assays, the growth of skp1 RNAi and overexpression recombinant strains was examined under conditions of high osmolality (sorbitol), high salinity (NaCl) and high temperature (37℃). Our results showed that skp1 silencing significantly reduced oil accumulation by 38%, whereas skp1 overexpressing led to a 37% increase in oil content, suggesting that skp1 plays a crucial role in regulating oil synthesis and may influence lipid accumulation by regulating photosynthetic carbon flux partitioning. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that skp1 was predominantly localized within the nucleus. Furthermore, our results showed that SKP1 responds to abiotic stresses. Under sorbol and NaCl stress conditions, RNAi interference strains exhibited better growth than controls; however, their growth was comparatively impaired under 37℃ stress compared to controls. On the other hand, overexpression strains showed weaker growth under sorbol and NaCl stress but were more tolerant to 37℃ heat stress. These results illustrate the functional diversity of SKP1 in Chlamydomonas. This study provides an important complement for lipid metabolism and abiotic stress regulation in microalgae.
Keywords: SCF(SKP1-Cullin1-F-box) complex, Skp1, E3 ubiquitin ligase, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Lipid Metabolism, abiotic stress
Received: 13 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deng, Wang, Liu, Xu and Fei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaowen Fei, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
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