Silencing of the violaxanthin de-epoxidase gene in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum reduces diatoxanthin synthesis and non-photochemical quenching.

ABSTRACT: Diatoms are a major group of primary producers ubiquitous in all aquatic ecosystems. To protect themselves from photooxidative damage in a fluctuating light climate potentially punctuated with regular excess light exposures, diatoms have developed several photoprotective mechanisms. The xanthophyll cycle (XC) dependent non-photochemical chlorophyll fluorescence quenching (NPQ) is one of the most important photoprotective processes that rapidly regulate photosynthesis in diatoms. NPQ depends on the conversion of diadinoxanthin (DD) into diatoxanthin (DT) by the violaxanthin de-epoxidase (VDE), also called DD de-epoxidase (DDE). To study the role of DDE in controlling NPQ, we generated transformants of P. tricornutum in which the gene (Vde/Dde) encoding for DDE was silenced. RNA interference

SUBMITTER: Lavaud J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3356336 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature