Protistology • 15 (2), 80–87 (2021) |
Brefeldin A disturbs Golgi complex integrity but does not impair ecdysis in the dinoflagellates Prorocentrum cordatum |
Ilya Pozdnyakov, Mariia Berdieva, Vera Kalinina, Sofia Pechkovskaya and Olga Matantseva Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg 194064, Russia | Submitted February 3, 2021 | Accepted March 25, 2021| Summary The marine planktonic dinoflagellate Prorocentrum cordatum (syn. Prorocentrum minimum) is a thecate species able to rearrange the cell covering in response to different stressors, i.e. to ecdyse. During the process of ecdysis, P. cordatum cells shed the plasma membrane and outer amphiesmal vesicle membrane, become immotile and covered only by thecal plates and the new plasma membrane. At this stage the cells can be considered as thecal cysts. Then they complete ecdysis by leaving the old thecal plates and restore motility, i.e. excyst. To elucidate the role of vesicular transport in the cell covering rearrangement, we tested the effect of brefeldin A, the inhibitor of vesicular transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex widely used in cell biology, on the cellular structure of P. cordatum and ability to ecdyse. We found out that brefeldin A effectively blocked vesicular transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex, since we did not observe the Golgi complex in cells treated by brefeldin A at 0.1 µg/ml for 1 h. Moreover, such treatment did not increase mortality in P. cordatum culture at the time scale of 6 h. Nevertheless, our experiments demonstrated that brefeldin A affected neither shedding of outer membranes nor discarding of thecal plates during the stressor-induced ecdysis. Based on our findings, we conclude that vesicle trafficking from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex and further to the plasma membrane is not essential to the process of membrane and theca shedding. However, it is likely to be involved in the new amphiesma maturation which is discussed in this work.
Key words: brefeldin A, dinoflagellates, ecdysis, Golgi complex, Prorocentrum cordatum, vesicle trafficking
Address for correspondence: Olga Matantseva. Institute of Cytology RAS, Tikhoretsky Ave. 4, 194064 St. Petersburg, Russia; e-mail: olga.matantseva@gmail.com |
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