Metacaspases mediate thermotolerance of diatoms following marine heat waves

Marine heat waves (MHW) are extreme climate events characterized by elevated ocean temperatures lasting from days to months and spanning thousands of kilometers. Recent predictions show an increment in MHW frequency, duration and intensity worldwide along with climate change. Nevertheless, little is known about MHW impacts on marine microbial life and, specifically, on algal blooms. Recent studies in yeast and green algae suggested that thermotolerance is mediated by metacaspases (MC), cysteine proteases, structurally similar to caspases known to mediate programmed cell death.

Initially we created a heatwave model of 72-hours that exposes the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to elevated temperature with a recovery phase that enables to capture the mechanisms underpinning such acclimation. We generated triple knock-out mutants of the PtMCA genes and identified a vital role for MC in heat-stress acclimation.

PtMCA triple mutants exhibited increased sensitivity to the heatwave treatment, which induced cell death that peaked days after returning to initial temperatures. We further revealed that heatwave treatment induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species and the PtMCA mutants were hypersensitive to oxidative stress as compared to WT cells.

We propose that metacaspases have a pivotal role in diatom’s acclimation to elevated temperatures a trait vital for algal survival considering climate change.