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Previous research indicated that free-living sporangial filament keep hollow morph under high-culture density and form bipartite cells under low-culture density, while the following conchospore release was inhibited by high light. Here, we further explored the molecular bases of these affects caused by light and culture density using a transcriptome analysis. Many differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to carbon dioxide concentration and fixation, photosynthesis, chlorophyll synthesis and nitrogen absorption were upregulated under high-light conditions compared with low-light conditions, indicating the molecular basis of rapid vegetative growth under the former. The stress response- and ion transport-related DEGs, as well as the gene encoding the vacuole formation-brefeldin A-inhibited guanine nucleotide exchange protein (BIG, py05721), were highly expressed under high-density conditions, indicating the molecular basis of the hollow morph of free-living sporangial filaments under high-culture density conditions. Additionally, the brefeldin A treatment indicated that the hollow morph was directly influenced by vacuole formation-related vesicle traffic. Others DEGs related to cell wall components, zinc-finger proteins, ASPO1527, cell cycle and cytoskeleton were highly expressed in the low density with low-light group, which might be related to the formation and release of conchospores. These results provide a deeper understanding of sporangial filaments in Neopyropia yezoensis and related species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haematococcus pluvialis is a commercial microalga that can produce high quantities of astaxanthin. Under induced conditions, some important changes in the subcellular structures related to astaxanthin accumulation were observable. For example, a large number of astaxanthin granules, oil structures and starch granules appeared in the thick-walled cells; Astaxanthin granules gradually dissolved into the oil structures and spread throughout the entire cell with the fusion and diffusion process of oil structures during the middle and late stages of induction; The plastoglobules were closed to the newly formed structures, and some plastoglobules would abnormally increase in size under stress. Based on observations of cell damage, the degradation of membrane structures, such as chloroplasts, was found to be the primary form of damage during the early stage of induction. During the middle stage of induction, some transparent holes were exposed in the dissolving astaxanthin granules in the cytoplasm. In thick-walled cells, these transparent holes were covered by oil substances dissolving astaxanthin, thereby avoiding further damage to cells. Given the relatively few oil structures, in non-thick-walled cells, the transparent holes expanded to form multiple transparent areas, eventually resulting in the rupture and death of cells. These results suggested that the high level of synthesis and the wide range diffusion of oil explained the expansion of astaxanthin in H. pluvialis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]