Paper accepted: “Comparative characterization of putative chitin deacetylases from Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana highlights distinct chitosan biosynthetic processes in diatoms”

Today, Zhanru Shao’s paper on the first chitin deacetylases identified in diatom microalgae was accepted for publication in the highly reputed journal “New Phytologist”. Zhanru did her PhD in the group of Prof. Chris Bowler at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris, where Lea Hembach from our group also performed part of the work for her Master thesis. Zhanru later came to our lab to analyze, with Lea’s support, the recombinant diatom chitin deacetylases. The collaboration was part of our European project Nano3Bio in which Prof. Vincent Bulone and his PhD student Xiaohui Xing, from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who contributed to the study, were also partners. Diatom algae are long known as producers of a rare and very pure β-chitin, but the presence of chitosan deacetylases now suggests that they may also be natural producers of chitosan. As natural chitosans might differ from conventional chitosans produced chemically from chitin, diatoms may be a promising source for novel chitosans. Interestingly, the phylogenetic analysis of these and other genes involved in chitin synthesis suggests that different diatom groups may have gained the ability to produce chitin and, potentially, chitosan independently, by horizontal gene transfer from bacteria and fungi. So this study had interesting findings for both fundamental biology and applied biotechnology.