Low temperature specific gene express in Antarctic C. neogracile

Abstract

Chaetoceros neogracile is a diatom that lives in Antarctic conditions. They were investigated to see how they adapt to low temperature conditions. Antarctic C. neogracile are brought to the lab and are now grown in 4 oC culture conditions, in which they grow most actively. Under continuous light, their growth rate was much higher than in light-dark conditions. To isolate the low temperature specific genes of Chaetoceros neogracile, cDNAs were generated by RT-PCR and they were amplified with arbitrary primers to compare genes that are differentially expressed between 10oC and 4oC culture conditions. PCR based partial cloning of C. neogracile genes were sequenced and characterized. 19 clones were obtained, and based on a Blast search, 6 genes were selected. To see how these genes are expressed in 4 oC and 10 oC conditions, RT-PCR was carried out. As a result, we found genes that are over expressed in specific conditions, and genes that are expressed equally in both conditions, and also genes that were not expressed much overall. As a further study based on the results of RT-PCR, we are planning to insert the genes into a plant to see how they are expressed -