Molecular phylogeny of fucoxanthin-chlorophyll a/c proteins from Chaetoceros gracilis and Lhcq/Lhcf diversity

Abstract

Diatoms adapt to various aquatic light environments and play major roles in the global carbon cycle using their unique light-harvesting system, i.e., fucoxanthin chlorophyll a/c binding proteins (FCPs). Structural analyses of photosystem II (PSII)-FCPII and photosystem I (PSI)-FCPI complexes from the diatom Chaetoceros gracilis have revealed the localization and interactions of many FCPs; however, the entire set of FCPs has not been characterized. Here, we identified 46 FCPs in the newly assembled genome and transcriptome of C. gracilis. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that these FCPs could be classified into five subfamilies: Lhcr, Lhcf, Lhcx, Lhcz, and novel Lhcq, in addition to a distinct type of Lhcr, CgLhcr9. The FCPs in Lhcr, including CgLhcr9 and some Lhcqs, had orthologous proteins in other diatoms, particularly those found in the PSI-FCPI structure. By contrast, the Lhcf subfamily, some of which were found in the PSII-FCPII complex, seemed to be diversified in each diatom species, and the number of Lhcqs differed among species, indicating that their diversification may contribute to species-specific adaptations to light. Further phylogenetic analyses of FCPs/light-harvesting complex (LHC) proteins using genome data and assembled transcriptomes of other diatoms and microalgae in public databases suggest that our proposed classification of FCPs was common among various red-lineage algae derived from secondary endosymbiosis of red algae, including Haptophyta. These results provided insights into the loss and gain of FCP/LHC subfamilies during the evolutionary history of the red algal lineage. One sentence summary Phylogenetic analysis of fucoxanthin-chlorophyll a/c proteins in C. gracilis revealed five major subfamilies and one minor subfamily, providing insights into the diversification of light-harvesting systems in red algae.