IronAlgae · Iron uptake in Chromera velia and other marine microalgae

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.