TY  - JOUR
A1  - Weber, Andreas P. M.
A1  - Oesterhelt, Christine
A1  - Gross, Wolfgang
A1  - Bräutigam, Andrea
A1  - Imboden, Lori
A1  - Krassovskaya, Inga
A1  - Linka, Nicole
A1  - Truchina, Julia
A1  - Schneidereit, Jörg
A1  - Voll, Lars
A1  - Zimmermann, Marc
A1  - Jamai, Aziz
A1  - Riekhof, Wayne
A1  - Yu, Bin
A1  - Garavito, Michael R.
A1  - Benning, Christoph
T1  - EST-analysis of the thermo-acidophilic red microalga Galdieria sulphuraria reveals potential for lipid A biosynthesis and unveils the pathway of carbon export from rhodoplasts
N2  - When we think of extremophiles, organisms adapted to extreme environments, prokaryotes come to mind first. However, the unicellular red micro-alga Galdieria sulphuraria (Cyanidiales) is a eukaryote that can represent up to 90% of the biomass in extreme habitats such as hot sulfur springs with pH values of 0-4 and temperatures of up to 56 degreesC. This red alga thrives autotrophically as well as heterotrophically on more than 50 different carbon sources, including a number of rare sugars and sugar alcohols. This biochemical versatility suggests a large repertoire of metabolic enzymes, rivaled by few organisms and a potentially rich source of thermo-stable enzymes for biotechnology. The temperatures under which this organism carries out photosynthesis are at the high end of the range for this process, making G. sulphuraria a valuable model for physical studies on the photosynthetic apparatus. In addition, the gene sequences of this living fossil reveal much about the evolution of modern eukaryotes. Finally, the alga tolerates high concentrations of toxic metal ions such as cadmium, mercury, aluminum, and nickel, suggesting potential application in bioremediation. To begin to explore the unique biology of G. sulphuraria, 5270 expressed sequence tags from two different cDNA libraries have been sequenced and annotated. Particular emphasis has been placed on the reconstruction of metabolic pathways present in this organism. For example, we provide evidence for (i) a complete pathway for lipid A biosynthesis; (ii) export of triose-phosphates from rhodoplasts; (iii) and absence of eukaryotic hexokinases. Sequence data and additional information are available at http://genomics.msu.edu/galdieria
Y1  - 2004
ER  -