Open Access
ARTICLE
Physiologic and Transcriptomic Insights into the High Alkali Response of Dunaliella salina
Jun Zhou, Haiqing Sun, Jiali Wei, Ping Li*
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China
* Corresponding Author: Ping Li. Email:
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2021, 90(5), 1401-1414. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2021.016514
Received 14 March 2021; Accepted 29 March 2021; Issue published 27 May 2021
Abstract
The halophilic unicellular green alga
Dunaliella salina is characterized as the distinct tolerance to high salt in the
field. Normally the organism is concurrently subjected with salt and alkali stress, but the feature of
D. salina in
response to high alkali stress was not investigated before. In this study, we used high pH stress to simulate high
alkali stress and found
D. salina also showed tolerance to high alkali stress, even grown under pH at 11.0, with
high cell density and chlorophyll biosynthesis. High-throughput transcriptome analysis revealed the dramatically
different expression of genes associated with nitrogen metabolism, lipid and β-carotene biosynthesis after high
alkali treatment. Furthermore, physiologic analysis showed that high alkali treatment induced the expression
and activity of nitrate reductase (NR), which generated nitric oxide (NO) as the messenger, and ultimately
induced the accumulation of lipid and β-carotene biosynthesis. Suppressing NR activity or NO generation also
reduced high-alkali-induced lipid and β-carotene biosynthesis, as well as attenuated the tolerance of
D. salina
to high alkali stress. Thus, our physiologic and transcriptomic data reveal the novel function of NR-dependent
NO signal during the adaptation of
D. salina to high alkali stress, through inducing the biosynthesis of lipid
and β-carotene biosynthesis.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Zhou, J., Sun, H., Wei, J., Li, P. (2021). Physiologic and Transcriptomic Insights into the High Alkali Response of
Dunaliella salina.
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, 90(5), 1401–1414.