ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Physiology and Metabolism
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1679056
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Microbial Genomics for Environmental SustainabilityView all 4 articles
Integrated morphological, proteomic and metabolomic analyses reveal response mechanisms of microalgae under uranium exposure
Provisionally accepted
- State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The release of uranium-containing wastewater poses serious threats to aquatic ecosystems. The response of microalgae to U stress remains poorly understood. This study investigated the mechanisms of U tolerance and accumulation in the Ulothrix sp. under exposure to low to high U concentrations (40-400 μmol/L). The results showed that Ulothrix sp. exhibited dose-dependent U enrichment, achieving an enrichment level of 2100 mg/kg dry weight (DW), accompanied by competitive inhibition of P and Zn uptake. Medium and high U concentrations reduced chlorophyll a by 49–65%, significantly decreased the photosystem II maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), and increased the energy dissipation per reaction centre (DIo/RC) to 1.82–2.01 times that of the control. Regarding stress response pathways, U exposure significantly upregulated superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities (p < 0.05), increased oxidized glutathione (GSSG) content to 2.2 times higher than control, and inhibited peroxidase (POD) activity. At the proteomic level, differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were significantly enriched in carbohydrate metabolism and transport pathways. At the cellular metabolic level, the glycine-serine-threonine pathway was specifically activated, and glycerophospholipid metabolism (ko00564) was significantly enriched. The findings reveal that Ulothrix sp. mitigates uranium (U) stress and maintains cellular homeostasis through a multi-level defense network, which includes the activation of antioxidant enzymes, remodeling of key tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolites, and regulation of the glycine-serine-threonine (Gly-Ser-Thr) metabolic pathway. This study provides theoretical support for the bioremediation of U-contaminated water.
Keywords: Microalgae, Uranium, Antioxidative enzyme, Proteomic and metabolomic analysis, bioremediation
Received: 04 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Yang, Bin, Lai, Zhao and Xi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mengwei Han, hanmengwei@sklnbcpc.cn
Sanping Zhao, spzhao@mail.ustc.edu.cn
Hailing Xi, xihailing@sklnbcpc.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.