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Cloning and Stress-Induced Expression Analysis of Calmodulin in the Antarctic Alga Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L

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Abstract

Calmodulin (CaM) is a Ca2+-binding protein that plays a role in several Ca2+ signaling pathways, which dynamically regulates the activities of hundreds of proteins. The ice alga Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L, which has the ability to adapt to extreme polar conditions, is a crucial primary producer in Antarctic ecosystem. This study hypothesized that Cam helps the ICE-L to adapt to the fluctuating conditions in the polar environment. It first verified the overall length of Cam, through RT-PCR and RACE-PCR, based on partial Cam transcriptome library of ICE-L. Then, the nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences were, respectively, analyzed by various bioinformatics approaches to gain more insights into the computed physicochemical properties of the CaM. Potential involvements of Cam in responding to certain stimuli (i.e., UVB radiation, high salinity, and temperature) were investigated by differential expression, measuring its transcription levels by means of quantitative RT-PCR. Results showed that CaM was indeed inducible and regulated by high UVB radiation, high salinity, and nonoptimal temperature conditions. Different conditions had different expression tendencies, which provided an important basis for investigating the adaptation mechanism of Cam in ICE-L.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41576187), the National Natural Science Foundation of China-Shandong Joint Fund (No. U1406402), the Polar Strategic Foundation of China (No. 20150303), the Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China (No. 2015G10), the Key Research and Development Plan of Shandong Province (No. 2016ZDJS06A03), the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (No. 201405015), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project Financially Supported by Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology and the Science (No. 2015ASKJ02), and Qingdao Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pioneers Program (No. 15-10-3-15-(44)-zch). The authors thank MogoEdit Co. for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. The First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, No. 6 of Xianxialing Road, Qingdao, 266061, China

      Ying-ying He, Yi-bin Wang, Zhou Zheng, Fang-ming Liu, Mei-ling An, Xiao-dong He, Chang-feng Qu, Lu-lu Li & Jin-lai Miao

    2. Key Laboratory of Marine Bioactive Substances, SOA, Qingdao, 266061, China

      Ying-ying He, Yi-bin Wang, Zhou Zheng, Fang-ming Liu, Mei-ling An, Xiao-dong He, Chang-feng Qu, Lu-lu Li & Jin-lai Miao

    3. Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266235, China

      Yi-bin Wang, Zhou Zheng, Fang-ming Liu & Jin-lai Miao

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    Ying-ying He and Yi-bin Wang have contributed equally to this work.

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    He, Yy., Wang, Yb., Zheng, Z. et al. Cloning and Stress-Induced Expression Analysis of Calmodulin in the Antarctic Alga Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L. Curr Microbiol 74, 921–929 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-017-1263-5

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