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First published online November 20, 2003; 10.1104/pp.103.034223 Plant Physiology 133:1517-1521 (2003) © 2003 American Society of Plant Biologists Photoactivated Adenylyl Cyclase Controls Phototaxis in the Flagellate Euglena gracilisDepartment of Plant Ecophysiology, Friedrich-Alexander University, Staudtstrasse 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany (M.N., M.L., D.-P.H.); National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585 Japan (M.I., M.W.); Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO), Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi Saitama, 332-0012 Japan (M.I.); and Department of Photoscience, School of Advanced Sciences, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193 Japan (M.W.)
Euglena gracilis, a unicellular freshwater protist exhibits different photomovement responses, such as phototaxis (oriented movement toward or away from the light source) and photophobic (abrupt turn in response to a rapid increase [step-up] or decrease [step-down] in the light fluence rate) responses. Photoactivated adenylyl cyclase (PAC) has been isolated from whole-cell preparations and identified by RNA interference (RNAi) to be the photoreceptor for step-up photophobic responses but not for step-down photophobic responses (M. Iseki, S. Matsunaga, A. Murakami, K. Ohno, K. Shiga, C. Yoshida, M. Sugai, T. Takahashi, T. Hori, M. Watanabe [2002] Nature 415: 1047-1051). The present study shows that knockdown of PAC by RNAi also effectively suppresses both positive and negative phototaxis, indicating for the first time that PAC or a PAC homolog is also the photoreceptor for photoorientation of wild-type E. gracilis. Recovery from RNAi occurred earlier for step-up photophobic responses than for positive and negative phototaxis. In addition, we investigated several phototaxis mutant strains of E. gracilis with different cytological features regarding the stigma and paraxonemal body (PAB; believed to be the location for the phototaxis photoreceptor) as well as Astasia longa, a close relative of E. gracilis. All of the E. gracilis mutant strains had PAC mRNAs, whereas in A. longa, a different but similar mRNA was found and designated AlPAC. Consistently, all of these strains showed no phototaxis but performed step-up photophobic responses, which were suppressed by RNAi of the PAC mRNA. The fact that some of these strains possess a cytologically altered or no PAB demonstrates that at least in these strains, the PAC photoreceptor responsible for the step-up photophobic responses is not located in the PAB.
The protist Euglena gracilis, a unicellular freshwater flagellate, is capable of both autotrophy and heterotrophy. The cell is characterized (Fig. 1A) by one flagellum emerging from the reservoir (invagination of the anterior plasma membrane) and a second non-emerging flagellum. The paraxonemal body (PAB) is a photosensing organelle (Ghetti et al., 1985
E. gracilis uses light and gravity for orientation to move to and stay at optimal growth conditions in the water column. Light-induced responses (Lebert and Häder, 2000 The aim of the present study was to investigate the function of PAC in step-up photophobic responses in colorless E. gracilis mutants and in A. longa, a non-photosynthetic close relative of E. gracilis which lacks a PAB. Furthermore, we aimed at clarifying the role of PAC in both positive and negative phototaxis in wild-type E. gracilis.
Presence and Localization of PAC or PAC Homolog in E. gracilis Mutants and A. longa
The presence of an intact PAB has been detected only in the cells of wild-type E. gracilis (normal PAB; Fig. 1A) and the mutant strain FB (smaller PAB; Fig. 1B) by autofluorescence and light microscopy, whereas no PAB was detected in the strains 1F and 9F, as well as in A. longa (Fig. 1C; Lebert and Häder, 1997
After several attempts to detect PAC
Upon examination of the role of PAC in photomovement responses in these strains by RNAi, step-up photophobic responses were suppressed in all of the strains tested regardless of their anatomical and molecular differences. RNAi for one of the PAC subunits was sufficient to suppress the responses. Recovery of step-up photophobic responses occurred first in A. longa (3 weeks) followed by the other strains (5-6 weeks).
Among all strains investigated, only wild-type E. gracilis exhibits normal phototaxis; we therefore examined the possible function of PAC in phototaxis in this strain quantitatively using an in-house-developed computerized motion analysis system (Häder and Lebert, 2000
Recovery of phototaxis, however, differed significantly from that of step-up responses: Whereas the suppression of step-up photophobic responses persisted for up to 6 weeks, suppression of phototaxis persisted for more than 3 months (Figs. 4 and 5). Both positive and negative phototaxis reappeared almost simultaneously. Other parameters observed by motion analysis, including velocity and form factor (indicator of cell shape), remained normal after RNAi (data not shown), indicating that the silencing process did not affect such cell functions.
Light is an important parameter for growth of E. gracilis. Although E. gracilis can live heterotrophically, optimal growth occurs in light. Positive phototaxis, supported by negative gravitaxis (Lebert et al., 1999
RNAi is a powerful tool that has been applied to a wide range of organisms from unicellular protists (Ngo et al., 1998 In addition to step-up photophobic responses, gene silencing of PAC inhibited phototaxis, another light-dependent response of E. gracilis. Inhibition occurred for positive as well as for negative phototaxis and was characterized by random swimming. Interestingly, recovery occurred simultaneously for positive and negative phototaxis but significantly later than for step-up photophobic responses in the same cells. Either a lower threshold level of requirement of PAC in the latter or sequential recovery of the PAC compartmentation for the two different photomovement responses would be a possible explanation. These data suggest, but do not give definite proof, that the PAC receptor responsible for step-up photophobic responses also serves as photoreceptor for phototaxis. Alternatively, a related PAC homolog might be responsible for light perception for phototaxis in E. gracilis. If the latter option is the case, the PAC homolog might be degraded nonspecifically as shown for AlPAC. Finally, PAC could influence downstream events in phototaxis.
PAC is the photoreceptor of step-up photophobic responses in E. gracilis wild type and the mutant strains 1F, 9F, and FB as well as in A. longa, a close relative of E. gracilis. Because in some strains, the PAB has an altered structure or is even absent, the PAC photoreceptor for step-up photophobic responses must have a different location in the cell. A PAC photoreceptor also controls positive and negative phototaxis of E. gracilis (wild type). Knockdown cells could not orient in low- and high-light conditions, and swimming was at random.
Strains and Culture Conditions
Euglena gracilis Z wild type, mutant strains 1F (1224-5/1F), 9F (1224-5/9F), and Astasia longa wild type were obtained from Sammlung für Algenkulturen (Göttingen, Germany). Mutant strain FB was a kind gift of Prof. R. Hertel (University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany) originally isolated by Dr. L. Barsanti (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Pisa, Italy). All strains were grown in a rich medium described previously (Starr, 1964
Total RNAs were purified from 7-d-old culture of A. longa using RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). First-strand cDNAs were synthesized using ReverTra Ace (TOYOBO, Osaka) and the Oligo dT 3 sites Adaptor Primer (TaKaRa, Ohtsu). PCR amplification of the cDNA was done with LA-TaqDNA polymerase (TaKaRa) and sets of primers originally designed for PAC
Knockdown of PAC by RNAi was accomplished by synthesizing dsRNA fragments corresponding to the N-terminal site of PAC
Motion analysis was conducted with a computer-based cell tracking system using Wintrack 2000 (Häder and Lebert, 2000 Received October 2, 2003; returned for revision October 7, 2003; accepted October 9, 2003.
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.103.034223. * Corresponding author; e-mail dphaeder{at}biologie.uni-erlangen.de; fax 49-9131-852-8215.
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