Phosphate starvation causes different stress responses in the lipid metabolism of tomato leaves and roots.

Plants have evolved various acclimation responses to cope with phosphate depletion, including several changes in lipid metabolism. Thereby membrane phospholipids are dephosphorylated and can be used as an internal phosphate source, while galactolipids are incorporated into the membrane to maintain membrane functionality. Still little is known about the lipidomic and transcriptomic response of plants other than Arabidopsis thaliana upon phosphate starvation.

High light induces species specific changes in the membrane lipid composition of Chlorella.

Algae have evolved several mechanisms to adjust to changing environmental conditions. To separate from their surroundings, algal cell membranes form a hydrophobic barrier that is critical for life. Thus, it is important to maintain or adjust the physical and biochemical properties of cell membranes which are exposed to environmental factors.

A microfluidic photobioreactor for simultaneous observation and cultivation of single microalgal cells or cell aggregates.

Microalgae are an ubiquitous and powerful driver of geochemical cycles which have formed Earth's biosphere since early in the evolution. Lately, microalgal research has been strongly stimulated by economic potential expected in biofuels, wastewater treatment, and high-value products. Similar to bacteria and other microorganisms, most work so far has been performed on the level of suspensions which typically contain millions of algal cells per millilitre.

De Novo Assembly of a New Accession Using Nanopore Sequencing.

Updates in nanopore technology have made it possible to obtain gigabases of sequence data. Prior to this, nanopore sequencing technology was mainly used to analyze microbial samples. Here, we describe the generation of a comprehensive nanopore sequencing data set with a median read length of 11,979 bp for a self-compatible accession of the wild tomato species We describe the assembly of its genome to a contig N50 of 2.

Growth of algal biomass in laboratory and in large-scale algal photobioreactors in the temperate climate of western Germany.

Growth of Chlorella vulgaris was characterized as a function of irradiance in a laboratory turbidostat (1L) and compared to batch growth in sunlit modules (5-25L) of the commercial NOVAgreen photobioreactor. The effects of variable sunlight and culture density were deconvoluted by a mathematical model. The analysis showed that algal growth was light-limited due to shading by external construction elements and due to light attenuation within the algal bags.

Chorismate pyruvate-lyase and 4-hydroxy-3-solanesylbenzoate decarboxylase are required for plastoquinone biosynthesis in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803.

Plastoquinone is a redox active lipid that serves as electron transporter in the bifunctional photosynthetic-respiratory transport chain of cyanobacteria. To examine the role of genes potentially involved in cyanobacterial plastoquinone biosynthesis, we have focused on three Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 genes likely encoding a chorismate pyruvate-lyase (sll1797) and two 4-hydroxy-3-solanesylbenzoate decarboxylases (slr1099 and sll0936).

Plastoquinone-9 biosynthesis in cyanobacteria differs from that in plants and involves a novel 4-hydroxybenzoate solanesyltransferase.

PQ-9 (plastoquinone-9) has a central role in energy transformation processes in cyanobacteria by mediating electron transfer in both the photosynthetic as well as the respiratory electron transport chain. The present study provides evidence that the PQ-9 biosynthetic pathway in cyanobacteria differs substantially from that in plants. We identified 4-hydroxybenzoate as being the aromatic precursor for PQ-9 in Synechocystis sp.