02270nas a2200229 4500008004100000245011800041210006900159260001200228300000900240490000700249520153800256653002501794653002501819653001701844653002201861653002001883100001801903700002301921700002101944700002901965856004601994 2024 eng d00aPermanent stress adaptation and unexpected high light tolerance in the shade-adapted Chlamydomonas priscui0 aPermanent stress adaptation and unexpected high light tolerance  c08/2024 a22540 v133 a

The Antarctic photopsychrophile, Chlamydomonas priscui UWO241, is adapted to extreme environmental conditions, including permanent low temperatures, high salt, and shade. During long-term exposure to this extreme habitat, UWO241 appears to have lost several short-term mechanisms in favor of constitutive protection against environmental stress. This study investigated the physiological and growth responses of UWO241 to high-light conditions, evaluating the impacts of long-term acclimation to high light, low temperature, and high salinity on its ability to manage short-term photoinhibition. We found that UWO241 significantly increased its growth rate and photosynthetic activity at growth irradiances far exceeding native light conditions. Furthermore, UWO241 exhibited robust protection against short-term photoinhibition, particularly in photosystem I. Lastly, pre-acclimation to high light or low temperatures, but not high salinity, enhanced photoinhibition tolerance. These findings extend our understanding of stress tolerance in extremophilic algae. In the past 2 decades, climate change-related increasing glacial stream flow has perturbed long-term stable conditions, which has been associated with lake level rise, the thinning of ice covers, and the expansion of ice-free perimeters, leading to perturbations in light and salinity conditions. Our findings have implications for phytoplankton survival and the response to change scenarios in the light-limited environment of Antarctic ice-covered lakes.

10aCyclic electron flow10aenvironmental change10aextremophile10aphoto-acclimation10aphotoinhibition1 aPopson, Devon1 aD’Silva, Susanna1 aWheeless, Kaylie1 aMorgan-Kiss, Rachael, M. uhttps://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/16/225402559nas a2200301 4500008004100000245008000041210006900121260001200190300001200202490000700214520166000221653001501881653001601896653002901912653001801941653001201959100002901971700001802000700002202018700002002040700002202060700001202082700001602094700002602110700002102136700003302157856006702190 2024 eng d00aSentinel protist taxa of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, Antarctica: A review0 aSentinel protist taxa of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes Antarctica c03/2024 a13234720 v123 a

High-latitude meromictic lakes such as those in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) harbor aquatic ecosystems dominated by the microbial loop. Within this habitat, which is limited year-round by light and nutrients, protists, or single celled eukaryotes, play outsized roles in the food web as the dominant primary producers and the apex predators. Thus, the MDV lake ecosystem represents an ideal system to study the role of sentinel protist taxa in carbon and nutrient cycling. The perennially ice-covered lakes are part of the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (McM LTER; mcmlter.org) established in 1993. In this review we will highlight the diversity and trophic roles of the MDV lake protist community and compare environmental factors driving spatiotemporal patterns in key protist taxa in two lakes within the McM LTER, Lakes Bonney and Fryxell. We will then discuss lessons learned from manipulated experiments on the impact of current and future climate-driven environmental change on sensitive protist taxa. Last, we will integrate knowledge gained from 25 years of lab-controlled experiments on key photosynthetic protists to extend our understanding of the function of these extremophiles within the MDV aquatic food webs. Our research group has studied the distribution and function of the MDV microbial community for nearly two decades, training the next generation of scientists to tackle future problems of these globally significant microbes. This review article will also highlight early career scientists who have contributed to this body of work and represent the future of scientific understanding in the Anthropocene.

10aAntarctica10aDisturbance10aMcMurdo Dry Valley lakes10aphytoplankton10aprotist1 aMorgan-Kiss, Rachael, M.1 aPopson, Devon1 aPereira, Rochelle1 aDolhi-Binder, J1 aTeufel, Amber, G.1 aLi, Wei1 aKalra, Isha1 aSherwell, Shasten, S.1 aReynebeau, Emily1 aTakacs-Vesbach, Cristina, D. uhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2024.132347202454nas a2200277 4500008004100000245020000041210006900241260001200310300001400322490000800336520152000344653001501864653001401879653002501893653001801918653001701936653000801953100002401961700001601985700002102001700001902022700001802041700002302059700002902082856006502111 2022 eng d00aCyclic electron flow (CEF) and ascorbate pathway activity provide constitutive photoprotection for the photopsychrophile, Chlamydomonas sp. UWO 241 (renamed Chlamydomonas priscuii)0 aCyclic electron flow CEF and ascorbate pathway activity provide  c03/2022 a235 - 2500 v1513 a

Under environmental stress, plants and algae employ a variety of strategies to protect the photosynthetic apparatus and maintain photostasis. To date, most studies on stress acclimation have focused on model organisms which possess limited to no tolerance to stressful extremes. We studied the ability of the Antarctic alga Chlamydomonas sp. UWO 241 (UWO 241) to acclimate to low temperature, high salinity or high light. UWO 241 maintained robust growth and photosynthetic activity at levels of temperature (2 °C) and salinity (700 mM NaCl) which were nonpermissive for a mesophilic sister species, Chlamydomonas raudensis SAG 49.72 (SAG 49.72). Acclimation in the mesophile involved classic mechanisms, including downregulation of light harvesting and shifts in excitation energy between photosystem I and II. In contrast, UWO 241 exhibited high rates of PSI-driven cyclic electron flow (CEF) and a larger capacity for nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ). Furthermore, UWO 241 exhibited constitutively high activity of two key ascorbate cycle enzymes, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase and maintained a large ascorbate pool. These results matched the ability of the psychrophile to maintain low ROS under short-term photoinhibition conditions. We conclude that tight control over photostasis and ROS levels are essential for photosynthetic life to flourish in a native habitat of permanent photooxidative stress. We propose to rename this organism Chlamydomonas priscuii.

10aAntarctica10aascorbate10aCyclic electron flow10aPhotosystem I10aPsychrophile10aROS1 aStahl-Rommel, Sarah1 aKalra, Isha1 aD'Silva, Susanna1 aHahn, Mark, M.1 aPopson, Devon1 aCvetkovska, Marina1 aMorgan-Kiss, Rachael, M. uhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11120-021-00877-5