Dr. Han Gao, a former graduate student in Prof. Spalding‘s laboratory, recently published a paper in the Plant Journal entitled, “Expression activation and functional analysis of HLA3, a putative inorganic carbon transporter in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii ” (read it here) and her research image was selected for the cover.

The cover image represents dual immunolocalization of two proteins in the CO₂-concentrating mechanism of Chlamydomonas, LCIA (green fluorescence), which is a chloroplast envelope bicarbonate transporter (and one of the proteins used in the feature paper), and LCIB (red fluorescence), which is required for active CO₂ uptake and that clusters around the pyrenoid under the very-low CO₂ conditions used for this localization.  The LCIA/LCIB dual immunolocalization provides a nice visual framework over which one can visualize the bicarbonate transport under very-low CO₂ concentrations, which includes the tandem transport of bicarbonate across the plasma membrane (HLA3) and the plastid envelope (LCIA – marked by LCIA fluorescence), followed by dehydration of the accumulated bicarbonate in the lumen of pyrenoidal thylakoid tubules to release CO₂ for use by Rubisco in the pyrenoid (marked by the surrounding LCIB fluorescence).

Dr. Gao is now pursuing a law degree at Boston University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts.