title: 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.
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.
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: monia.russo@szn.it.
authors.forename: Monia Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, UMR 7238, F-75006 Paris, France; CNRS, UMR 7238, F-75006 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Annunziata
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Remo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanges
authors.affiliation: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Immacolata
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Ferrante
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, UMR 7238, F-75006 Paris, France; CNRS, UMR 7238, F-75006 Paris, France. Electronic address: angela.falciatore@upmc.fr.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falciatore
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D017377:Diatoms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D004247:DNA
keywords: Diatoms; Enhancer; Gene expression; Promoter; Regulatory element