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Inorganic carbon acquisition by eukaryotic algae: four current questions

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Abstract

The phylogenetically and morphologically diverse eukaryotic algae are typically oxygenic photolithotrophs. They have a diversity of incompletely understood mechanisms of inorganic carbon acquisition: this article reviews four areas where investigations continue. The first topic is diffusive CO2 entry. Most eukaryotic algae, like all cyanobacteria, have inorganic carbon concentrating mechanisms (CCMs). The ancestral condition was presumably the absence of a CCM, i.e. diffusive CO2 entry, as found in a small minority of eukaryotic algae today; however, it is likely that, as is found in several cases, this condition is due to a loss of a CCM. There are a number of algae which are in various respects intermediate between diffusive CO2 entry and occurrence of a CCM: further study is needed on this aspect. A second topic is the nature of cyanelles and their role in inorganic carbon assimilation. The cyanelles (plastids) of the euglyphid amoeba Paulinella have been acquired relatively recently by endosymbiosis with genetic integration of an α-cyanobacterium with a Form 1A Rubisco. The α-carboxysomes in the cyanelles are presumably involved in a CCM, but further investigation is needed.Also called cyanelles are the plastids of glaucocystophycean algae, but is it now clear that these were derived from the β-cyanobacterial ancestor of all plastids other than that of Paulinella. The resemblances of the central body of the cyanelles of glaucocystophycean algae to carboxysomes may not reflect derivation from cyanobacterial β-carboxysomes; although it is clear that these algae have CCMs but these are now well characterized. The other two topics concern CCMs in other eukaryotic algae; these CCMs arose polyphyletically and independently of the cyanobacterial CCMs. It is generally believed that eukaryotic algal, like cyanobacterial, CCMs are based on active transport of an inorganic carbon species and/or protons, and they have C3 biochemistry. This is the case for the organism considered as the third topic, i.e. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the eukaryotic alga with the best understood CCM. This CCM involves HCO3 − conversion to CO2 in the thylakoid lumen so the external inorganic carbon must cross four membranes in series with a final CO2 effux from the thylakoid. More remains to be investigated about this CCM. The final topic is that of the occurrence of C4-like metabolism in the CCMs of marine diatoms. Different conclusions have been reached depending on the organism investigated and the techniques used, and several aspects require further study.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges discussions with John Beardall, Kate Crawfurd, Mario Giordano, Espen Granum, Richard Leegood, Stephen Maberly and Karen Roberts, which have proved particularly helpful. The author’s research on inorganic carbon acquisition is funded by the National Environment Research Council UK. The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity No. 015096.

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  1. Division of Plant Sciences, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee at SCRI, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, UK

    John A. Raven

  2. School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    John A. Raven

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Raven, J.A. Inorganic carbon acquisition by eukaryotic algae: four current questions. Photosynth Res 106, 123–134 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-010-9563-7

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