Through photosynthesis, microscopic algae are responsible for almost half of the world's CO2 fixation. Research into these organisms is therefore also of enormous importance for understanding climate change. Since the middle of the 20th century, the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has developed into an important model organism in algal research and plant biology. In her Ph.D. thesis, Yuliia Lihanova developed and applied genetic methods in C. reinhardtii, for example to investigate the function of a sulfur-containing secondary metabolite. Furthermore, the prize winner has characterized specific genetic elements, so-called activating cis-regulatory elements, in C. reinhardtii for the first time, which can activate genes over longer distances. She then used these elements to produce over 30,000 random mutants and identified mutants that are better protected against high light stress. Ms. Lihanova's work thus contributes to a better understanding of protective mechanisms in photosynthetic organisms.
"The scientific questions I had the chance to work on in the Department of Plant Physiology were really exciting and challenging. I find it fascinating how complex a single cell of a green alga can be and how substantially such organisms contribute to our understanding of plant physiology and evolution" says Ms. Lihanova. Prof. Severin Sasso, head of the Department of Plant Physiology and supervisor of the Ph.D. thesis, adds: "Ms. Lihanova is an extremely talented scientist who has obtained very interesting results thanks to her great knowledge and experimental skills. With her ideas and critical mind, she has very independently established a method that can be used in the future to elucidate different cellular processes in C. reinhardtii and other algae." Part of Yuliia Lihanova's Ph.D. thesis has already been published in a scientific journal (https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16781).