Lipidomic Analysis of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under Nitrogen and Sulfur Deprivation

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 9; p. e0137948
• Main Authors: Yang, Dawei, Song, Donghui, Kind, Tobias, Ma, Yan, Hoefkens, Jens, Fiehn, Oliver
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.09.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Algae; Biodiesel fuels; Biodiversity; Biomass; Biosynthesis; Cell density; Cell division; Chlamydomonas; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - growth & development; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - metabolism; Chlorophyll; Chromatography; Complex lipids; Deprivation; Fatty acids; Genetic engineering; Genomes; Infusion; Lipids; Lipids - analysis; Mass spectrometry; Metabolism; Metabolites; Multivariate analysis; Nitrogen; Nitrogen (Nutrient); Nitrogen - deficiency; Nutrient deficiency; Nutrients; Nutrition; Phosphatidylglycerol; Phosphatidylglycerols; Physiological aspects; Raw materials; Scientific imaging; Species diversity; Starvation; Statistical analysis; Sulfur; Sulfur - deficiency; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Triglycerides; United States > US; China; California
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137948

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii accumulates lipids under complete nutrient starvation conditions while overall growth in biomass stops. In order to better understand biochemical changes under nutrient deprivation that maintain production of algal biomass, we used a lipidomic assay for analyzing the temporal regulation of the composition of complex lipids in C. reinhardtii in response to nitrogen and sulfur deprivation. Using a chip-based nanoelectrospray direct infusion into an ion trap mass spectrometer, we measured a diversity of lipid species reported for C. reinhardtii, including PG phosphatidylglycerols, PI Phosphatidylinositols, MGDG monogalactosyldiacylglycerols, DGDG digalactosyldiacylglycerols, SQDG sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerols, DGTS homoserine ether lipids and TAG triacylglycerols. Individual lipid species were annotated by matching mass precursors and MS/MS fragmentations to the in-house LipidBlast mass spectral database and MS2Analyzer. Multivariate statistics showed a clear impact on overall lipidomic phenotypes on both the temporal and the nutrition stress level. Homoserine-lipids were found up-regulated at late growth time points and higher cell density, while triacyclglycerols showed opposite regulation of unsaturated and saturated fatty acyl chains under nutritional deprivation.