Dissecting the cellular and molecular basis of photosymbiosis in the acoel convolutriloba longifissura
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Multicellular organisms are now commonly regarded as holobionts, collections of species making up an individual. The intimate relationships between symbiotes in a holobiont seem to involve the molecular interdependence of species to varying degrees. Studying the integration of molecular pathways in holobionts has been experimentally challenging, but high-throughput sequencing technologies now allow for the simultaneous evaluation of multiple partners at once. In this dissertation, we use the photosymbiotic acoel Convolutriloba longifissura to evaluate some of the implications of the molecular crosstalk between species. In Chapter 2, we evaluate the responses of algal symbionts to host regeneration. Early post-injury the algal response is defined by a decrease in photosynthetic efficiency and an upregulation of photosynthesis-related genes. A second wave of transcriptional responses takes place two days post-injury, with unique molecular players. We demonstrate that regeneration of the holobiont is dependent on the transcription factor, Cl-runt, a conserved regulator of acoel regeneration. Knockdown of Cl-runt further decreases the operational quantum yield of photosystem II and dampens the early and late transcriptional responses in both the host and the symbionts. This work describes the coordination of molecular responses to regeneration in a photosymbiotic holobiont. In Chapter 3 we characterize the cell type diversity found in C. longifissura and compare their cell type composition to the non-symbiotic acoel Hofstenia miamia. We identify 17 unique cell types belonging to all expected tissue types: epidermal, muscle, neural, endoderm-like, secretory, and stem cells. Based on their relative DNA content and gene expression, four populations are cycling stem cells. Comparison with H. miamia demonstrates high cell type similarity. Muscle and epidermal cell types have the best alignment scores, while stem cells share the highest number of supporting genes. The endoderm-like cell types are identified as homologs but show low similarity. However, we identify five orthologous transcription factors shared between acoel endoderm-like cell types: foxA, ets-2, gsc, hnf4, and elf5. Functional characterization is needed to evaluate if these cell types have shared functions in these acoels. Overall, the high similarity found between acoel cell types supports a limited cell type divergence between acoels.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2024; ©2024 |
| Publication date | 2024; 2024 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Nanes Sarfati, Dania |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Wang, Bo, (Researcher in bioengineering) |
| Thesis advisor | Wang, Bo, (Researcher in bioengineering) |
| Thesis advisor | Bergmann, Dominique |
| Thesis advisor | Lowe, Christopher, (Associate professor of biology) |
| Thesis advisor | Palumbi, Stephen R |
| Degree committee member | Bergmann, Dominique |
| Degree committee member | Lowe, Christopher, (Associate professor of biology) |
| Degree committee member | Palumbi, Stephen R |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Humanities and Sciences |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Dania Nanes Sarfati. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2024. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/nn462jb7266 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2024 by Dania Nanes Sarfati
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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