Orchestrated Response of Dunaliella for Coping with Iron Limitation

Algae are responsible for half of global primary productivity and have an important role in biogeochemical cycling. Algae can thrive in nutrient-rich and nutrient-depleted environments, indicating their wide plasticity. Iron, which is one of the key elements for life on Earth, limits all forms of life due to its limited bioavailability; Thus impacting primary productivity on a global scale in croplands and oceans. Photosynthetic organisms which have greater iron demand due to its use in photosynthesis in addition to respiration, can be in a chronic state of iron deficiency; Consequentially, have adapted iron economy mechanisms involving sparing and recycling. We aimed to use system biology approaches in order to provide a cellular view of iron metabolism in Dunaliella bardawil. The genus Dunaliella represents globally abundant, broadly distributed unicellular green microalgae that are well known for their high tolerance to extreme abiotic stress conditions of salinity, light, temperature and pH, but are otherwise not well studied at the molecular level. By using combination of genomics, transcriptomic and proteomics we identified important key players in Fe homeostasis. A systematic understanding of diverse strategies for optimizing iron utilization is a pre-requisite for exploiting iron-poor environments for food and fuel production.