Soujanya Kuntam

• PhD
• Research Associate at HUN-REN Szegedi Biológiai Kutatóközpont

Exoelectrogenesis is the ability of living cells to export electrons. In photosynthetic organisms, exoelectrogenesis is of particular interest because it can be used for transduction of solar energy into electric current in biophotovoltaics or reducing power for biocatalysis. Previously, we identified and characterized the green microalga Parachlor...

Ascorbate (Asc) is an important antioxidant that also participates in various biological processes in plants such as hormone metabolism, stress response and signaling pathways. Asc is also a vital vitamin for human health and enriching its content through biofortification is a desirable objective. Therefore, reliable in situ methods for assessing A...

Ascorbate is a major plant metabolite that plays crucial roles in various processes, from reactive oxygen scavenging to epigenetic regulation. However, to what extent and how ascorbate modulates metabolism is largely unknown. We investigated the consequences of chloroplastic and total cellular ascorbate-deficiencies by studying chloroplastic ascorb...

ACCEPTED IN PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. Ascorbate is a major plant metabolite that plays crucial roles in various processes, from reactive oxygen scavenging to epigenetic regulation. However, to what extent and how ascorbate modulates metabolism is largely unknown. To address this, we investigated the consequences of chloroplastic and total cellular ascorbat...

In eukaryotic cells, phosphorus is assimilated and utilized primarily as phosphate (Pi). Pi homeostasis is mediated by transporters that have not yet been adequately characterized in green algae. This study reports on PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER 4-7 (CrPHT4-7) from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a member of the PHT4 transporter family, which exhibits remarka...

The acclimation of cyanobacteria to iron deficiency is crucial for their survival in natural environments. In response to iron deficiency, many cyanobacterial species induce the production of a pigment-protein complex called IsiA (iron-stress-induced protein A). IsiA proteins associate with photosystem I (PSI) and can function as light-harvesting a...

PUBLISHED IN PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. In eukaryotic cells, phosphorus is assimilated and utilized primarily as phosphate (Pi). Pi homeostasis is mediated by transporters that have not yet been adequately characterized in green algae. This study reports on CrPHT4-7 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , a member of the PHT4 transporter family, which exhibits rem...

PSBO is an essential subunit of the oxygen-evolving complex and we recently demonstrated that its lifetime depends on environmental conditions in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To assess PSBO lifetime with a high time resolution, we employed (1) a microfluidic platform enabling the trapping of single cells and the parallel measurement of photosynthetic...

The acclimation of cyanobacteria to iron deficiency is crucial for their survival in natural environments. In response to iron deficiency, many cyanobacterial species induce the production of a pigment-protein complex called IsiA. IsiA proteins associate with photosystem I (PSI) and can function as light-harvesting antennas or dissipate excess ener...

Iron deficiency is a common challenge faced by cyanobacteria in oceanic environments and the acclimation to iron deficiency is crucial for their survival. In response to iron deficiency, many cyanobacterial species induce the production of a pigment-protein complex called IsiA. IsiA proteins associate with photosystem I (PSI) and can function as li...

PSBO is essential for the assembly of the oxygen‐evolving complex in plants and green algae. Despite its importance, we lack essential information on its lifetime and how it depends on the environmental conditions. We have generated nitrate‐inducible PSBO amiRNA lines in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Transgenic strains grew normally und...

Photobiological hydrogen (H2) production is a promising renewable energy source. HydA hydrogenases of green algae are efficient but O2-sensitive and compete for electrons with CO2-fixation. Recently, we established a photoautotrophic H2 production system based on anaerobic induction, where the Calvin-Benson cycle is inactive and O2 scavenged by an...

A detailed analysis of the plant cell division cycle is required to understand the changes in metabolic, developmental, and physiological processes. Determination of DNA synthesis phase (S-phase) of the cell division cycle is particularly important to assess the proliferative status of a given cell, tissue, or organ. Several methods exist to detect...

Key message The present work demonstrates the use and advantages of novel, live cell permeable, lipid droplet localizing, non toxic, blue fluorochromes for use in live plant cells. Abstract Lipid droplets (LDs) are ubiquitous components of both animal and plant cells. They consist of a core of neutral lipids surrounded by a monolayer of phosphol...

Discovering new fluorochromes is significantly advanced by high-throughput screening (HTS) methods. In the present study a combination of small molecule microarray (SMM) prescreening and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was developed in order to discover novel cell staining fluorescent dyes. Compounds with high native fluorescence were sel...