Abstract
While research on iron nutrition in plants has largely focused on iron-uptake pathways, photosynthetic microbes such as the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii provide excellent experimental systems for understanding iron metabolism at the subcellular level. Several paradigms in iron homeostasis have been established in this alga, including photosystem remodeling in the chloroplast and preferential retention of some pathways and key iron-dependent proteins in response to suboptimal iron supply. This review presents our current understanding of iron homeostasis in Chlamydomonas, with specific attention on characterized responses to changes in iron supply, like iron-deficiency. An overview of frequently used methods for the investigation of iron-responsive gene expression, physiology and metabolism is also provided, including preparation of media, the effect of cell size, cell density and strain choice on quantitative measurements and methods for the determination of metal content and assessing the effect of iron supply on photosynthetic performance.
Highlights
Iron is relatively abundant in the earth’s crust, inadequate access to this micronutrient often chronically limits photosynthesis in the ocean and on land
This review presents our current understanding of iron homeostasis in Chlamydomonas, with specific attention on characterized responses to changes in iron supply, like iron-deficiency
The last common ancestor between Chlamydomonas and land plants such as Arabidopsis existed at least 700 million years ago (Becker, 2013), the photosynthetic apparatus are virtually identical
Summary
Edited by: Jean-Francois Briat, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France. While research on iron nutrition in plants has largely focused on iron-uptake pathways, photosynthetic microbes such as the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii provide excellent experimental systems for understanding iron metabolism at the subcellular level. Several paradigms in iron homeostasis have been established in this alga, including photosystem remodeling in the chloroplast and preferential retention of some pathways and key iron-dependent proteins in response to suboptimal iron supply. This review presents our current understanding of iron homeostasis in Chlamydomonas, with specific attention on characterized responses to changes in iron supply, like iron-deficiency. An overview of frequently used methods for the investigation of iron-responsive gene expression, physiology and metabolism is provided, including preparation of media, the effect of cell size, cell density and strain choice on quantitative measurements and methods for the determination of metal content and assessing the effect of iron supply on photosynthetic performance
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