IRONALGAE
Iron uptake in Chromera velia and other marine microalgae
| Coordinatore | UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE
Organization address
address: Ovocny trh 5 contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | Czech Republic [CZ] |
| Totale costo | 45˙000 € |
| EC contributo | 45˙000 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG |
| Funding Scheme | MC-ERG |
| Anno di inizio | 2011 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2011-04-01 - 2014-03-31 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE
Organization address
address: Ovocny trh 5 contact info |
CZ (PRAHA 1) | coordinator | 45˙000.00 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'Recently discovered marine alga Chromera velia represents the closest known free living photosynthetic relative to obligate parasites Apicomplexa. C. velia is easy to cultivate, thus representing a powerful model for studying organisms living in nutritionally poor ocean environment as well as a model to study the evolution of parasitism. For most marine microorganisms the mechanisms of adaptation to extremely low iron levels in surface seawater are unknown. We have recently described in C. velia a novel non-reductive two-step model of iron uptake. In this project we will further study the mechanism of iron uptake system in C. velia and characterize it at the molecular level. Furthermore, we will compare iron requirement, uptake mechanism and storage in various microalgae belonging to different phyla. Our preliminary experiments suggest great diversity in the requirement for iron among different marine microalgae. We will try to elucidate if these differences are related to the diversity of the mechanisms of iron acquisition and storage.'
Introduzione (Teaser)
Researchers have studied the genetics of iron metabolism in phytoplankton, comparing a recently discovered microalga with a number of other marine microorganisms.
Descrizione progetto (Article)
Iron is a key element for life on Earth. It is a rare element in surface seawater, and as such many phytoplankton have evolved different pathways of iron metabolism.
The EU-funded 'Iron uptake in Chromera velia and other marine microalgae' (IRONALGAE) project aimed to study iron uptake in this microalga and compare it to other classes of phytoplankton.
To achieve this, scientists investigated the genes and proteins involved in absorbing iron-containing compounds and extracting the iron atoms. They investigated a number of other microalgae as well as diatoms.
A comparison of iron-containing compounds identified ferric ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as the best iron source for growth. However, ferric citrate and ferrous ascorbate can be used to study how microalgae process iron at the molecular level.
Researchers found that among all organisms studied, iron binding on the cell surface was key, although there was no common mechanism of iron binding. Using high-throughput analysis, a number of iron-uptake proteins were identified for further study.