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The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies

Dinoflagellates are important contributors to the marine phytoplankton and global carbon fixation, but are also infamous for their ability to form the spectacular harmful algal blooms called red tides. While blooms are often associated with high available nitrogen, there are instances where they are...

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Autores principales: Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve, Dorion, Sonia, Rivoal, Jean, Morse, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4219697/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111067
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author Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve
Dorion, Sonia
Rivoal, Jean
Morse, David
author_facet Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve
Dorion, Sonia
Rivoal, Jean
Morse, David
author_sort Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve
collection PubMed
description Dinoflagellates are important contributors to the marine phytoplankton and global carbon fixation, but are also infamous for their ability to form the spectacular harmful algal blooms called red tides. While blooms are often associated with high available nitrogen, there are instances where they are observed in oligotrophic environments. In order to maintain their massive population in conditions of nitrogen limitation, dinoflagellates must have evolved efficient adaptive mechanisms. Here we report the physiological responses to nitrogen deprivation in Lingulodinium polyedrum. We find that this species reacts to nitrogen stress, as do most plants and microalgae, by stopping cell growth and diminishing levels of internal nitrogen, in particular in the form of protein and chlorophyll. Photosynthesis is maintained at high levels for roughly a week following nitrate depletion, resulting in accumulated photosynthetic products in the form of starch. During the second week, photosynthesis rates decrease due to a reduction in the number of chloroplasts and the accumulation of neutral lipid droplets. Surprisingly, the starch granules and lipid droplets are seen to accumulate at opposite poles of the cell. Lastly, we observe that cells acclimated to nitrogen-depleted conditions resume normal growth after addition of inorganic nitrogen, but are able to maintain high cell densities far longer than cells grown continuously in nitrogen-replete conditions.
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spelling pubmed-42196972014-11-12 The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve Dorion, Sonia Rivoal, Jean Morse, David PLoS One Research Article Dinoflagellates are important contributors to the marine phytoplankton and global carbon fixation, but are also infamous for their ability to form the spectacular harmful algal blooms called red tides. While blooms are often associated with high available nitrogen, there are instances where they are observed in oligotrophic environments. In order to maintain their massive population in conditions of nitrogen limitation, dinoflagellates must have evolved efficient adaptive mechanisms. Here we report the physiological responses to nitrogen deprivation in Lingulodinium polyedrum. We find that this species reacts to nitrogen stress, as do most plants and microalgae, by stopping cell growth and diminishing levels of internal nitrogen, in particular in the form of protein and chlorophyll. Photosynthesis is maintained at high levels for roughly a week following nitrate depletion, resulting in accumulated photosynthetic products in the form of starch. During the second week, photosynthesis rates decrease due to a reduction in the number of chloroplasts and the accumulation of neutral lipid droplets. Surprisingly, the starch granules and lipid droplets are seen to accumulate at opposite poles of the cell. Lastly, we observe that cells acclimated to nitrogen-depleted conditions resume normal growth after addition of inorganic nitrogen, but are able to maintain high cell densities far longer than cells grown continuously in nitrogen-replete conditions. Public Library of Science 2014-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4219697/ /pubmed/25368991 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111067 Text en © 2014 Dagenais Bellefeuille et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dagenais Bellefeuille, Steve
Dorion, Sonia
Rivoal, Jean
Morse, David
The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title_full The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title_fullStr The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title_full_unstemmed The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title_short The Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum Responds to N Depletion by a Polarized Deposition of Starch and Lipid Bodies
title_sort dinoflagellate lingulodinium polyedrum responds to n depletion by a polarized deposition of starch and lipid bodies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4219697/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111067
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