Sensory modalities are essential for navigating through an ever-changing environment. From insects to mammals, transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are known mediators for cellular sensing. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a motile single-celled freshwater green alga that is guided by photosensory, mechanosensory, and chemosensory cues. In this type of alga, sensory input is first detected by membrane receptors located in the cell body and then transduced to the beating cilia by membrane depolarization. Although TRP channels seem to be absent in plants, C. reinhardtii possesses genomic sequences encoding TRP proteins. Here, we describe the cloning and characterization of a C. reinhardtii version of a TRP channel sharing key features present in mammalian TRP channels associated with sensory transduction. In silico sequence-structure analysis unveiled the modular design of TRP channels, and electrophysiological experiments conducted on Human Embryonic Kidney-293T cells expressing the Cr-TRP1 clone showed that many of the core functional features of metazoan TRP channels are present in Cr-TRP1, suggesting that basic TRP channel gating characteristics evolved early in the history of eukaryotes.
This experiment was carried out to determine the effect of breed on mRNA and protein expression levels of lipogenic enzymes acetyl-CoA carboxylase α (ACC), fatty acid synthase (FAS), stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1) plus sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1c (SREBP1c) in the subcutaneous fat (SCF) from the back of the animal, and tail fat (TF) of both Chilota and Suffolk Down lambs grazing Calafatal. Eight Chilota and six Suffolk Down 2-month-old male lambs were allocated to graze a “Calafatal”, a typical secondary succession of Chiloé Archipelago, Chile. After 62 d, lambs were slaughtered according to Chile’s meat industry standards. Fatty acid profile, RT-qPCR, and Western blot analyses from SCF and TF samples were performed. Although the mRNA expression levels of ACC, FAS, SCD1 and SREBP1c in SCF did not differ significantly between breeds (p > 0.05), a trend to higher mRNA expression of FAS and SREBP1c in TF from Chilota lambs was observed (p = 0.06). On the other hand, FAS levels in SCF were higher in Chilota than in Suffolk Down lambs (p < 0.02), although Suffolk Down showed higher fat contents and saturated fatty acid (SFA) proportions than Chilota lambs (p < 0.01). The FAS protein expression in TF was similar in both breeds (p > 0.05). Although the fat content was higher in Suffolk Down than in Chilota lambs (p < 0.01), the SFA proportions were similar in both breeds. Finally, it can be concluded that although mRNA expression of enzymes was similar in both breeds, there were differences in some protein levels in the SCF, partially related with the fatty acid profiles, thus affecting the selection of lamb breed either for human consumption or experimental purposes.
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