2017 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 91-97
Eukaryotic cell possesses nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, peroxisomes, mitochondria, and in case of plants, chloroplasts. The division and inheritance of all organelles is crucial for successful proliferation of eukaryotic cells. However, the molecular mechanisms of the division and inheritance of each organelle are largely unknown except for the nucleus because of the number of organelles that exist in the cell, the complex shapes that organelles exhibit, and the asynchrony of the timing of division for each organelle, in typical mammalian cultured cells and land plant cells. In contrast, unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae is an extremely simple organism; C. merolae possesses a minimum set of organelles, which divide contemporarily in synchronous culture: the nuclear genome of C. merolae codes a small number of genes. In addition, transformation of C. merolae is feasible. Here I report the methods for producing stable transformants of C. merolae, the determination of cell-cycle stages by molecular markers, and construction of the gene expression profile as a platform for investigating organelle division and inheritance. I will also introduce my research regarding vacuolar inheritance revealed from the gene expression profile.
