Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Poster VI

BP 18.14: Poster

Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 14:00–16:00, P2/2OG

The effect of lidocaine and calcium signaling on the adhesion of Chlamydomonas to surfaces — •Marzieh Karimi, Henning Lührs, Antoine Girot, and Oliver Bäumchen — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Photosynthetic microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and applied in photobioreactor technologies for molecular farming and as a sustainable source of biofuels. However, the formation of microbial biofilms in such photobioreactors appears as a major technological issue, which could be solved by tuning the adhesion of the cells. In this context, we discovered that the adhesion of the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to surfaces is switchable by light (Kreis et al., Nature Physics, 2018). Under blue light, the cells stick to surfaces, while under red light they do not show any adhesion. Previous experiments suggest that this change in adhesion is based on the translocation of the adhesion-mediating protein FMG-1B within the flagella membrane. In this work, we study the influence of lidocaine as a signal inhibitor on the light-switchable adhesion of Chlamydomonas. Using in vivo micropipette force spectroscopy experiments, we find that the light-switchable adhesion of the flagella is completely inhibited in the presence of lidocaine in any light condition. Since lidocaine is known to inhibit calcium ion channels, we hypothesize that such a photocurrent is involved in the signal transduction from the blue-light photoreceptor to the flagella membrane.