Enhancement of arsenic uptake and accumulation in green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii through heterologous expression of the phosphate transporter DsPht1

Yimei Xi; Bolei Han; Fantao Kong; Tingting You; Ran Bi; Xiangfeng Zeng; Shaofeng Wang; Yongfeng Jia

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132130

Enhancement of arsenic uptake and accumulation in green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii through heterologous expression of the phosphate transporter DsPht1

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Oct 5:459:132130. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132130. Epub 2023 Jul 24.

Authors

Yimei Xi¹, Bolei Han¹, Fantao Kong², Tingting You¹, Ran Bi³, Xiangfeng Zeng⁴, Shaofeng Wang¹, Yongfeng Jia⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
² School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. Electronic address: kongfantao@dlut.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Marine Sciences and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. Electronic address: zengxf@iae.ac.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China; Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.

PMID: 37499491
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132130

Abstract

Arsenate (AsV) is a predominant arsenic contaminant in aerobic water. Microalgae have been recently used in the phytoremediation of arsenic-contaminated water. However, the amount of AsV uptake in microalgae is limited, which hinders the application of microalgae in arsenic-contaminated water treatment. Here, we found that the expression of a novel phosphate transporter DsPht1 in Dunaliella salina was highly upregulated after AsV exposure. Fluorescent protein-tagging analysis showed the plasma membrane location of DsPht1. Furthermore, DsPht1 was overexpressed in a model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The DsPht1 transgenetic lines accumulated up to 6.4-fold higher total arsenic than the untransformed line, and the AsV amount in total arsenic increased by 8.3-fold. Moreover, the organoarsenic content was also higher in the transgenetic lines. Overall, the DsPht1 transformants generated in this study increased arsenate uptake and transformation, which are promising for the effective phytoremediation of arsenic-contaminated water.

Keywords: Arsenic speciation; Arsenic uptake; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Dunaliella salina; Phosphate transporter.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Arsenates / metabolism
Arsenic* / metabolism
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii* / genetics
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii* / metabolism
Microalgae* / metabolism
Phosphate Transport Proteins / genetics
Phosphate Transport Proteins / metabolism

Substances

Arsenic
arsenic acid
Arsenates
Phosphate Transport Proteins