Description
•Snow algae are photoautotrophs which thrive in mountainous or polar snow packs. Blooms occur during the melting period in spring and summer when water prevails between snow crystals •They are extremophiles in terms of irradiation conditions, low temperatures and restricted water availability (freeze-thaw-events) •While most of snow algae belong to the green algae (Chlorophyceae) causing green or red blooms [1], we describe here a golden algae (Chrysophyceae) causing yellow snow in the Austrian Alps •Our aim was to understand survival strategies of these cells at the biochemical and transcriptomic (protein expression) level •Strains of snow algae may accumulate biotechnological promising compounds like pigments, lipids[3] or anti-freeze agents[4] •Spent culture medium exhibited ice structuring activity, indicating the presence of secreted ice binding proteins (IBPs) [4] (fig. 9) •The transcriptome contained two IBP isoforms with secretion domains, each with many transcripts •Expression of the IBPs was strongly induced by low temperature (fig. 10) •Two chaperonins (support protein folding) were found to be specific for 1°C and 15°C, respectively (fig. 10).| Period | 16 Sept 2018 |
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| Event title | 12th International Congress of Extremophiles |
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | Ischia, ItalyShow on map |