INVITATION TO THE LECTURE

»Hydrogen peroxide induces apoptotic–like cell death in Microcystis aeruginosa
in a dose–dependent manner«

Ding Yi, Institute of Hydrobiology,
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

The lecture will take place on Friday, the 23th march 2012, at 14:00 p.m. in the Lecture Hall B2 of the Biological Centre, Večna pot 111, Ljubljana.

Summary:

Traditionally, cyanobacteria were considered immortal unless eaten by zooplankton or otherwise damaged. There is recent evidence that phytoplankton, cyanobacteria included, can undergo programmed cell death (PCD) in response to environmental stress. A well–known form of PCD is apoptosis, which is accompanied by plasma membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation, involvement of cysteine proteases (caspases) and the fragmentation of DNA. However, various types of PCD with overlapping morphological and physiological hallmarks have been described in unicellular organisms. Other cell death types termed “paraptosis”, “aponecrosis” and “autophagy”, which are fundamentally different from apoptosis, have also been described.

Among the toxic cyanobacteria, Microcystis aeruginosa is frequently present in highly eutrophic lakes and often dominate the phytoplankton communities in eutrophic lakes and ponds. M. aeruginosa produces the hepatotoxin microcystin, which is a threat to human and environmental health. Recently, it has been reported that M. aeruginosa NIES 843 and PCC 7806 harbour genes for PCD that may be related to the rapid collapse of Microcystis blooms in the environment. Therefore, the bloom–forming cyanobacterial species M. aeruginosa is an ideal organism to utilize in order to address cellular mechanisms under specific environmental conditions. This lecture will focus on the M. aeruginosa capability of executing apoptosis by pursuing morphological, molecular and physiological characteristics after exposure to H2O2.

Kindly invited!