Skip to main content
Publications | Persons | Institutes | Projects
[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

The upstream regulatory sequence of the light harvesting complex Lhcf2 gene of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum enhances transcription in an orientation- and distance-independent fashion
Russo, M.T.; Annunziata, R.; Sanges, R.; Ferrante, M.I.; Falciatore, A. (2015). The upstream regulatory sequence of the light harvesting complex Lhcf2 gene of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum enhances transcription in an orientation- and distance-independent fashion. Marine Genomics 24(1): 69-79. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margen.2015.06.010
In: Marine Genomics. Elsevier: Amsterdam. ISSN 1874-7787; e-ISSN 1876-7478, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keywords
    Marine Sciences
    Marine Sciences > Marine Genomics
    Maritime Industries > Blue Biotech
    Scientific Community
    Scientific Publication
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    Diatoms; Gene expression; Promoter; Enhancer; Regulatory element

Project Top | Authors 
  • Association of European marine biological laboratories, more

Authors  Top 
  • Russo, M.T.
  • Annunziata, R.
  • Sanges, R.
  • Ferrante, M.I.
  • Falciatore, A.

Abstract
    Diatoms are a key phytoplankton group in the contemporary ocean, showing extraordinary adaptation capacities to rapidly changing environments. The recent availability of whole genome sequences from representative species has revealed distinct features in their genomes, like novel combinations of genes encoding distinct metabolisms and a significant number of diatom-specific genes. However, the regulatory mechanisms driving diatom gene expression are still largely uncharacterized. Considering the wide variety of fields of study orbiting diatoms, ranging from ecology, evolutionary biology to biotechnology, it is thus essential to increase our understanding of fundamental gene regulatory processes such as transcriptional regulation. To this aim, we explored the functional properties of the 5′-flanking region of the Phaeodatylum tricornutum Lhcf2 gene, encoding a member of the Light Harvesting Complex superfamily and we showed that this region enhances transcription of a GUS reporter gene in an orientation- and distance-independent fashion. This represents the first example of a cis-regulatory sequence with enhancer-like features discovered in diatoms and it is instrumental for the generation of novel genetic tools and diatom exploitation in different areas of study.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors