Year: 2020
Type: preprint
Abstract: Phytoplankton is a minor fraction of the global biomass playing a major role in primary production and climate. Despite improved understanding of phytoplankton diversity and genomics, we lack nanoscale subcellular imaging approaches to understand their physiology and cell biology. Here, we present a complete Focused Ion Beam - Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) workflow (from sample preparation to image processing) to generate nanometric 3D phytoplankton models. Tomograms of entire cells, representatives of six ecologically-successful phytoplankton unicellular eukaryotes, were used for quantitative morphometric analysis. Besides lineage-specific cellular architectures, we observed common features related to cellular energy management: i) conserved cell-volume fractions occupied by the different organelles; ii) consistent plastid-mitochondria interactions, iii) constant volumetric ratios in these energy-producing organelles. We revealed detailed subcellular features related to chromatin organization and to biomineralization. Overall, this approach opens new perspectives to study phytoplankton acclimation responses to abiotic and biotic factors at a relevant biological scale.
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Laboratoire Physiologie Cellulaire & Végétale, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA Grenoble, Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Grenoble, Institut de Biologie Structurale, Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann, Integrated Structural Biology Grenoble, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Institute of Molecular Plant Biology
Language: English
Subfield: Structural Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1088207598, G1183670895, CBH-EUR-GS, G1825864493, G2121614283, G2147824529, G2447855386, G24637203, G256544642, G2659019386, G2911514573, G2921176495, G292453335, Coordinated Research Infrastructures Building Enduring Life-science services, G3509114830, G3959213471, G4233949907, G434337789, G4460985483, G5753977096, IDEX UGA, G6721448960, G6803667113, G6891474181, G7240651115, G7259097847, G7351664618, G7376787254, G7841029393, G814059, G8305889996, Infrastructure Française pour la Biologie Structurale Intégrée, G8964069747, Modelling Mixotrophy in the extremophile alga Galdieria sulphuraria, Grenoble Alliance for Integrated Structural Cell Biology, G994248709
OpenAlex ID: W3027770982