title: The diatom molecular toolkit to handle nitrogen uptake.
abstract: Nutrient concentrations in the oceans display significant temporal and spatial variability, which strongly affects growth, distribution and survival of phytoplankton. Nitrogen (N) in particular is often considered a limiting resource for prominent marine microalgae, such as diatoms. Diatoms possess a suite of N-related transporters and enzymes and utilize a variety of inorganic (e.g., nitrate, NO3(-); ammonium, NH4(+)) and organic (e.g., urea; amino acids) N sources for growth. However, the molecular mechanisms allowing diatoms to cope efficiently with N oscillations by controlling uptake capacities and signaling pathways involved in the perception of external and internal clues remain largely unknown. Data reported in the literature suggest that the regulation and the characteristic of the genes, and their products, involved in N metabolism are often diatom-specific, which correlates with the peculiar physiology of these organisms for what N utilization concerns. Our study reveals that diatoms host a larger suite of N transporters than one would expected for a unicellular organism, which may warrant flexible responses to variable conditions, possibly also correlated to the phases of life cycle of the cells. All this makes N transporters a crucial key to reveal the balance between proximate and ultimate factors in diatom life.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, CNR, Via P. Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: alessandra.rogato@ibbr.cnr.it.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rogato
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale 1, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amato
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale 1, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Iudicone
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, CNR, Via P. Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiurazzi
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale 1, 80121 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: mariella.ferrante@szn.it.
authors.forename: Maria Immacolata
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Ferrante
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale 1, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio Ribera
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: d'Alcalà
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport / Q000502:physiology; D017377:Diatoms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Diatoms; Genomics; Nitrogen uptake; Nutrients; Signaling; Transporters