Responses of unicellular predators to cope with the phototoxicity of photosynthetic prey

Akihiro Uzuka, Yusuke Kobayashi, Ryo Onuma, Shunsuke Hirooka, Yu Kanesaki, Hirofumi Yoshikawa, Takayuki Fujiwara and Shin-ya Miyagishima ()
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Akihiro Uzuka: National Institute of Genetics
Yusuke Kobayashi: National Institute of Genetics
Ryo Onuma: National Institute of Genetics
Shunsuke Hirooka: National Institute of Genetics
Yu Kanesaki: Shizuoka University
Hirofumi Yoshikawa: Tokyo University of Agriculture
Takayuki Fujiwara: National Institute of Genetics
Shin-ya Miyagishima: National Institute of Genetics

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Feeding on unicellular photosynthetic organisms by unicellular eukaryotes is the base of the aquatic food chain and evolutionarily led to the establishment of photosynthetic endosymbionts/organelles. Photosynthesis generates reactive oxygen species and damages cells; thus, photosynthetic organisms possess several mechanisms to cope with the stress. Here, we demonstrate that photosynthetic prey also exposes unicellular amoebozoan and excavates predators to photosynthetic oxidative stress. Upon illumination, there is a commonality in transcriptomic changes among evolutionarily distant organisms feeding on photosynthetic prey. One of the genes commonly upregulated is a horizontally transferred homolog of algal and plant genes for chlorophyll degradation/detoxification. In addition, the predators reduce their phagocytic uptake while accelerating digestion of photosynthetic prey upon illumination, reducing the number of photosynthetic cells inside the predator cells, as this also occurs in facultative endosymbiotic associations upon certain stresses. Thus, some mechanisms in predators observed here probably have been necessary for evolution of endosymbiotic associations.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13568-6

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