30 May 2022
Salinity tolerance mechanisms of an Arctic microalgae
Did you know that Arctic microalgae are exposed to low salinity from melting sea ice and higher salinity with the formation of brine channels during freezing? Yet, at the transcriptional level, little is known about these adaptations to short-term changes in salinity. A team including two members of Québec-Océan at U. Laval, Professor Connie Lovejoy, and former Ph.D. student Natasyia Feyria, studied the transcriptional response of an ice-associated microalga to varying salinities. Their results show a specific adaptation to cold saline Arctic conditions with the expression of several antifreeze proteins, ice-binding protein, and an acyl esterase involved in cold adaptation. Their study is published in the journal Communication Biology:
