Project Details
Projekt
Analyzing the evolutionary chemodiversity, metabolism, and function of sphingolipids in the zygnematophyceaen algae, Spirogyra pratensis and Mougeotia scalaris and the bryophytes Marchantia polymorpha and Physcomitrella patens
Applicant
Professor Dr. Ivo Feußner
Subject Area
Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
Term
from 2020 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440232164
Sphingolipids are essential lipids that are ubiquitous among eukaryotes. Plant sphingolipids are involved in many processes, including maintenance of plasma membrane integrity and microdomain formation, cell growth and division, polar secretion, and programmed cell death signaling. They have primarily been investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana, for which an extensive genetic toolkit has been available for decades. The precise functions of sphingolipids have been challenging to study in Arabidopsis, however, due to non-viable or pleiotropic mutant phenotypes, complex organ structure, and difficulties with sphingolipid extraction and detection. Genome sequences and tools for genome editing are now available for a wide variety of species, offering a better understanding of metabolic and functional diversity, and enabling study of evolutionary history and ancestral functions. The bryophytes Marchantia polymorpha and Physcomitrella patens are early-diverged land plants and relatively new model organisms suitable for this purpose. Preliminary work by my group revealed a unique sphingolipid profile for Physcomitrella, and diversification of gene families associated with biosynthesis of the central building block of sphingolipids, ceramides. We will now carry out comprehensive sphingolipid profiling of Marchantia, as well as the zygnematophyceaen algae Spirogyra pratensis and Mougeotia scalaris, for a broader perspective of the establishment of characteristic plant sphingolipid building blocks. Next, we will use Physcomitrella and Marchantia to study the ancestral functions of sphingolipids in the land plant lineage. We will focus on the analysis of (1) a sphingolipid desaturase family that our work has suggested is specific to bryophytes and microalgae, (2) the ceramide synthase family as key enzymes in sphingolipid biosynthesis, and (3) ceramide glucosyltransferases, which catalyze the simplest modification of the ceramide backbone. Physcomitrella and Marchantia will be particularly useful for the study of sphingolipid functions given their relatively simple morphology, which will facilitate observation of traits known to be affected by sphingolipid metabolism such as cell growth, division, and differentiation. Further, we will use these systems to test how sphingolipids contribute to tolerance of abiotic and biotic stresses associated with terrestrial life.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
