{"id":84,"date":"2013-10-24T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T17:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/?page_id=84"},"modified":"2019-02-28T13:55:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:55:32","slug":"photoprotective-strategies-of-ciliates","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/info-corner\/photoprotective-strategies-of-ciliates\/","title":{"rendered":"Photoprotective strategies of ciliates"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n
\"Stokesia<\/a><\/p>\n

Stokesia vernalis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How do ciliates protect themselves from\u00a0ultraviolet\u00a0radiation?<\/h3>\n

Recently, we identified several photoprotective strategies in ciliates from lakes (in cooperation with the \u201aLake and Glacier Research Group\u2019 of the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck):<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Living in symbiosis<\/strong>
\nSome ciliate species live in symbiosis together with unicellular algae (mixotrophy). The algae do not only provide the host with photosynthetic products but also synthesize specific sunscreen compounds (so-called mycosporine-like amino acids or MAAs)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Collective shield<\/strong>
\n\"Collective<\/a>Not all symbiotic algae are able to synthesize MAAs but provide physical shelter to the ciliates nuclei by accumulating in one cell end. Moreover, many individuals of the ciliate Paramecium bursaria<\/em> form dense green spots, the so-called \u201acollective shield\u2018. The optimal UV-sunscreen in Paramecium bursaria<\/em> depends on the amount of symbiotic algae present in the ciliates\u2019 cytoplasm<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ciliates without symbionts<\/strong>
\nSome ciliates without symbionts may accumulate the sunscreens through MAA-rich algal food<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ciliate plankton in an alpine lake<\/strong>
\n\"Ciliate<\/a>In alpine lakes the incident solar radiation is high and even the UV-B wavelengths can reach the lake bottom. See how the summer ciliate plankton in such a lake protects itself from high UV-irradiation levels.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

UV-photoprotection in Paramecium bursaria<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"UV<\/a><\/p>\n

Changes in relative abundance (% of T0) of symbiotic P. bursaria<\/em> (A), of the cell line with reduced symbiotic algae (B), and of the aposymbiotic (without symbionts) cell line (C) 5 h after exposure to simulated UVR+PAR (photosynthetically active radiation); red bars (left) indicate the relative abundance in the control (i.e., darkness) and orange bars (right) in the UVR treatment; results are reported as the means \u00b1 standard deviations for three independent experiments; asterisk indicates a significant difference between control and treatment (p<0.05).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Download: Figure as PDF<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do ciliates protect themselves from\u00a0ultraviolet\u00a0radiation? Recently, we identified several photoprotective strategies in ciliates from lakes (in cooperation with the \u201aLake and Glacier Research Group\u2019 of the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck): Living in symbiosis Some ciliate species live in symbiosis together with unicellular algae (mixotrophy). The algae do not only provide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-84","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions\/281"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciliates.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}