Inducible Knockdown of a Carotenoid Isomerase of Unknown Function
Category: Research Poster
Author(s): Joey Hoffmaster
Presenter(s): Joey Hoffmaster
Diatoms are a type of photosynthetic algae that live in aquatic ecosystems. To capture the blue-green light that penetrates through water, diatoms adapted to be able to synthesize fucoxanthin, a brown carotenoid that effectively absorbs this light. Carotenoid biosynthesis in diatoms is not well understood, and our focus is to discover the novel genes involved in this pathway. One of such genes is crtisol, a carotenoid isomerase-like gene of unknown function. In this project, we use CRISPRi to target and knock down this gene in Phaeodactylum tricornutum to better understand the role this gene has in photosynthesis.