Metabolomic analysis of the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cultivated under day/night conditions

Rémi Willamme, Zouheir Alsafra, Rameshkumar Arumugam, Gauthier Eppe, Françoise Remacle, R. D. Levine, Claire Remacle*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biomass composition of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was studied during two consecutive cycles of 12 h light/12. h dark. As in our experimental conditions the two synchronized divisions were separated by 20 h, it was possible to show that accumulation of dry weight, proteins, chlorophyll and fatty acids mainly depends on cell division, whereas starch accumulation depends on a circadian rhythm as reported previously. Our metabolomics analyses also revealed that accumulation of five (Ser, Val, Leu, Ile and Thr) of the nine free amino acids detected displayed rhythmicity, depending on cell division while Glu was 20-50 times more abundant than the other ones probably because this free amino acid serves not only for protein synthesis but also for biosynthesis of nitrogen compounds. In addition, we performed a thermodynamic-motivated theoretical approach known as 'surprisal analysis'. The results from this analysis showed that cells were close to a steady state all along the 48 h of the experiment. In addition, calculation of free energy of cellular metabolites showed that the transition point, i.e. the state which immediately precedes cell division, corresponds to the most unstable stage of the cell cycle and that division is identified as the greatest drop in the free energy of metabolites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20-26
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Biotechnology
Volume215
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Dec 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Chlamydomonas
  • Day/night cycle
  • Metabolomics
  • Surprisal analysis

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