Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 14, 2026
High-Throughput Robotically Assisted Isolation of Temperature-sensitive Lethal Mutants in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Published on: December 5, 2016
Genome-wide long non-coding RNA screening, identification and characterization in a model microorganism Chlamydomonas
Hui Li1,2, Yuting Wang2,3, Meirong Chen1,2
1Guangdong Technology Research Center for Marine Algal Bioengineering, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Epigenetic, College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Microalgae are regarded as the most promising biofuel candidates and extensive metabolic engineering were conducted but very few improvements were achieved. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) investigation and manipulation may provide new insights for this issue. LncRNAs refer to transcripts that are longer than 200 nucleotides, do not encode proteins but play important roles in eukaryotic gene regulation. However, no information of potential lncRNAs has been reported in eukaryotic alga. Recently, we performed RNA sequencing in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and obtained totally 3,574 putative lncRNAs. 1440 were considered as high-confidence lncRNAs, including 936 large intergenic, 310 intronic and 194 anti-sense lncRNAs. The average transcript length, ORF length and numbers of exons for lncRNAs are much less than for genes in this green alga. In contrast with human lncRNAs of which more than 98% are spliced, the percentage in C. reinhardtii is only 48.1%. In addition, we identified 367 lncRNAs responsive to sulfur deprivation, including 36 photosynthesis-related lncRNAs. This is the first time that lncRNAs were explored in the unicellular model organism C. reinhardtii. The lncRNA data could also provide new insights into C. reinhardtii hydrogen production under sulfur deprivation.
