ALBERT

Description: Gross primary production (GPP) is a key terrestrial ecophysiological process that links atmospheric composition and vegetation processes. Study of GPP is important to global carbon cycles and global warming. One of the most important of these processes, plant photosynthesis, requires solar radiation in the 0.4-0.7 micron range (also known as photosynthetically active radiation or PAR), water, carbon dioxide (CO2), and nutrients. A vegetation canopy is composed primarily of photosynthetically active vegetation (PAV) and non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV; e.g., senescent foliage, branches and stems). A green leaf is composed of chlorophyll and various proportions of nonphotosynthetic components (e.g., other pigments in the leaf, primary/secondary/tertiary veins, and cell walls). The fraction of PAR absorbed by whole vegetation canopy (FAPAR(sub canopy)) has been widely used in satellite-based Production Efficiency Models to estimate GPP (as a product of FAPAR(sub canopy)x PAR x LUE(sub canopy), where LUE(sub canopy) is light use efficiency at canopy level). However, only the PAR absorbed by chlorophyll (a product of FAPAR(sub chl) x PAR) is used for photosynthesis. Therefore, remote sensing driven biogeochemical models that use FAPAR(sub chl) in estimating GPP (as a product of FAPAR(sub chl x PAR x LUE(sub chl) are more likely to be consistent with plant photosynthesis processes.

Description: Extremophilic organisms dwell in environments that are characterized by high or low temperatures (thermophiles or psychrophiles), very low or high pH-values (acidophiles or alkalophiles), high salt concentrations (halophiles), high pressure (barophiles), or extreme drought (xerophiles). Many extremophiles are microbes, and many also belong to the prokaryota. Galdieria sulphuraria, however, is a member of a group of extremophilic eukaryotes that are named Cyanidiales. Cyanidiales are unicellular red micro-algae that occur worldwide in hot acidic waters, volcanic calderas, and in human-made acidic environments such as acidic mine drainage. G. sulphuraria has a unique position within the Cyanidiales because, in contrast to the other obligate photoautotrophic members of this group, it is able to grow photoautotrophically, mixotrophically, and heterotrophically. It is not only resistant to acid (pH 0) and heat (56oC), but also to high salt (1.5 M NaCl), toxic metals, and many other abiotic stressors. This unusual combination of features such as thermophily, acidophily, resistance to a wide array of abiotic stressors, and an extraordinary metabolic plasticity make G. sulphuraria highly interesting model organism to study adaptation to extreme environments. We have started a genomics approach to gain insight into the biology of G. sulphuraria and to identify genes and gene products critical for survival under extreme conditions. To this end, we pursue a whole-genome, shotgun sequencing approach towards unraveling the genome sequence of G. sulphuraria. We report here on the status quo of the genome-sequencing project and we summarize what we have learned to date from the genome sequence about the biology of this truly unique extremophile.