Bioremediation of heavy metals using a transgenic Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

BUSI MV

Mar del Plata

Taller; JORNADA DE BIOTECNOLOGÍA ALGAL; 2017

INBIOTEC-CONICET-FIBA

Heavy metals rich effluents are an important source of water contamination all over the world. They are toxic at low concentrations and cannot be degraded or destroyed. As trace elements, some of these like copper, iron and zinc are essential for life. Cells show several strategies for handling heavy metals: all eukaryotes synthesize small proteins called metallothioneins, which are the primary response to high amounts of metals. Also, most organisms have frataxin; an essential protein involved in iron homeostasis and related to other metals. We propose C. reinhardtii as a model for heavy metal bioremediation in water. This unicellular green alga offers a simple life cycle, easy isolation of transgenic lines and many tools for molecular studies. In this sense, we obtained transgenic Chlamydomonas by electroporation, expressing a soybean metallothionein (GmMT3) or frataxin from C. reinhardtii (CrFH) and maize (ZmFH2). Transgenic algae were identified by hygromicin resistance, and transcript expression was confirmed by qPCR. These lines were tested with high quantities of essential metals, exhibiting improved growth Also, they show resistance to oxidative stress produced by H2O2.