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Organic carbon fixed in chloroplasts through the Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle can be diverted toward different metabolic fates, including cytoplasmic and mitochondrial respiration, gluconeogenesis, and synthesis of diverse plastid metabolites via the pyruvate hub. In plants, pyruvate is principally produced via cytoplasmic glycolysis, although a plastid-targeted lower glycolytic pathway is known to exist in non-photosynthetic tissue. Here, we characterized a lower plastid glycolysis-gluconeogenesis pathway enabling the direct interconversion of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and phospho-enol-pyruvate in diatoms, ecologically important marine algae distantly related to plants. We show that two reversible enzymes required to complete diatom plastid glycolysis-gluconeogenesis, Enolase and bis-phosphoglycerate mutase (PGAM), originated through duplications of mitochondria-targeted respiratory isoforms. Through CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis, integrative 'omic analyses, and measured kinetics of expressed enzymes in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, we present evidence that this pathway diverts plastid glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate into the pyruvate hub, and may also function in the gluconeogenic direction. Considering experimental data, we show that this pathway has different roles dependent in particular on day length and environmental temperature, and show that the cpEnolase and cpPGAM genes are expressed at elevated levels in high-latitude oceans where diatoms are abundant. Our data provide evolutionary, meta-genomic, and functional insights into a poorly understood yet evolutionarily recurrent plastid metabolic pathway., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement. None declared., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society of Plant Biologists.)

Upon abiotic stress or senescence, the size and/or abundancy of plastid-localized plastoglobules and cytosolic lipid droplets, both compartments devoted to neutral lipid storage, increase in leaves. Meanwhile, plant lipid metabolism is also perturbed, notably with the degradation of thylakoidal monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and the accumulation of neutral lipids. Although these mechanisms are probably linked, they have never been jointly studied, and the respective roles of plastoglobules and lipid droplets in the plant response to stress are totally unknown. To address this question, we determined and compared the glycerolipid composition of both lipid droplets and plastoglobules, followed their formation in response to nitrogen starvation and studied the kinetics of lipid metabolism in Arabidopsis leaves. Our results demonstrated that plastoglobules preferentially store phytyl-esters, while triacylglycerols (TAGs) and steryl-esters accumulated within lipid droplets. Thanks to a pulse chase labeling approach and lipid analyses of fatty acid desaturase 2 (fad2) mutant, we showed that MGDG-derived C18:3 fatty acids were exported to lipid droplets, while MGDG-derived C16:3 fatty acids were stored within plastoglobules. The export of lipids from plastids to lipid droplets was likely facilitated by the physical contact occurring between both organelles, as demonstrated by our electron tomography study. The accumulation of lipid droplets and neutral lipids was transient, suggesting that stress-induced TAGs were remobilized during the plant recovery phase by a mechanism that remains to be explored., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

An effect of climate change is the expansion of drylands in temperate regions, predicted to affect microbial biodiversity. Since photosynthetic organisms are at the base of ecosystem's trophic networks, we compared an endolithic desiccation-tolerant Chroococcidiopsis cyanobacteria isolated from gypsum rocks in the Atacama Desert with a freshwater desiccation-sensitive Synechocystis. We sought whether some acclimation traits in response to desiccation and temperature variations were shared, to evaluate the potential of temperate species to possibly become resilient to future arid conditions. When temperature varies, Synechocystis tunes the acyl composition of its lipids, via a homeoviscous acclimation mechanism known to adjust membrane fluidity, whereas no such change occurs in Chroococcidiopsis. Vice versa, a combined study of photosynthesis and pigment content shows that Chroococcidiopsis remodels its photosynthesis components and keeps an optimal photosynthetic capacity at all temperatures, whereas Synechocystis is unable to such adjustment. Upon desiccation on a gypsum surface, Synechocystis is rapidly unable to revive, whereas Chroococcidiopsis is capable to recover after three weeks. Using X-ray diffraction, we found no evidence that Chroococcidiopsis could use water extracted from gypsum crystals in such conditions as a surrogate for missing water. The sulfolipid sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol becomes the prominent membrane lipid in both dehydrated cyanobacteria, highlighting an overlooked function for this lipid. Chroococcidiopsis keeps a minimal level of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, which may be essential for the recovery process. Results support that two independent adaptation strategies have evolved in these species to cope with temperature and desiccation increase and suggest some possible scenarios for microbial biodiversity change triggered by climate change., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and signaling are activated in Arabidopsis cultivated in phosphate (Pi) deprived conditions. This activation occurs mainly in photosynthetic tissues and is less important in roots. In leaves, the enhanced biosynthesis of JA coincides with membrane glycerolipid remodeling triggered by the lack of Pi. We addressed the possible role of JA on the dynamics and magnitude of glycerolipid remodeling in response to Pi deprivation and resupply. Based on combined analyses of gene expression, JA biosynthesis and glycerolipid remodeling in wild-type Arabidopsis and in the coi1-16 mutant, JA signaling seems important in the determination of the basal levels of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidic acid (PA), monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglycerol. JA impact on MGDG steady state level and fluctuations seem contradictory. In the coi1-16 mutant, the steady state level of MGDG is higher, possibly due to a higher level of PA in the mutant, activating MGD1, and to an increased expression of MGD3. These results support a possible impact of JA in limiting the overall content of this lipid. Concerning lipid variations, upon Pi deprivation, JA seems rather associated with a specific MGDG increase. Following Pi resupply, whereas the expression of glycerolipid remodeling genes returns to basal level, JA biosynthesis and signaling genes are still upregulated, likely due to a JA-induced positive feedback remaining active. Distinct impacts on enzymes synthesizing MGDG, that is, downregulating MGD3, possibly activating MGD1 expression and limiting the activation of MGD1 via PA, might allow JA playing a role in a sophisticated fine tuning of galactolipid variations., (� The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)