B. Author contributions
Chapter 2
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS and PGK. Transcript analysis, antibody validation and prediction of dimerization capabilities was carried out by MS. Data analysis was done by MS. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS and PGK.
Chapter 3
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS and PGK. The Bind-n-Seq experiment and elucidation of the binding motif was done by MS. The promoter analysis was done by MJ. Data analysis was done by MS and MJ. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS, MJ and PGK.
Chapter 4
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS, BL, PGK and CRB. Adaptation of the TALEN system to P. tricornutum was done by KW under supervision by CRB and BL.
Generation and characterization of knockout strains was carried out by MS and BL. The data was analyzed by MS. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS, BL, PGK and CRB.
Chapter 5
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS, MM, CW and PGK. Cultivation of cells for the shift experiment was performed by MM. Extraction of RNA and quality control was performed by MS. Further data analysis after transcript mapping was carried out by MS and MM. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS and PGK.
B. Author contributions 115
Chapter 6
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS and PGK. Creation and genetic characterization of the knockout strains was done by MS. Light microscopy was performed by CRB. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS, CRB and PGK
Chapter 7
Conception and design of the experiments was done by MS, CRB, PGK and BL. Creation and characterization of the knockout strains was done by MS and CRB. The manuscript was drafted by MS and finalized by MS, CRB, PGK and BL.
C. Acknowledgements 116
C. Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the people who have contributed to the successful completion of this thesis:
Prof. Peter Kroth, for giving me the opportunity to do my PhD thesis in his group, the good supervision and guidance throughout. Nonetheless, you gave me the freedom to decide in which ways to develop this very interesting project.
All members of the Forschergruppe FOR1261, especially Marcus Mann and Prof. Christian Wilhelm (Universität Leipzig), Dr. Elena Herman and Dr. Tilman Kottke (Universität Bielefeld), Dr. Ankan Banerjee and Prof. Lars-Oliver Essen (Universität Marburg) and Dr.
Marion Eisenhut and Prof. Andreas Weber (Universität Düsseldorf) for fruitful cooperation, as well as the DFG and the Universität Konstanz for funding and resources.
Caro, for being the not-so-secret self-proclaimed “democratic dictator” of the group who keeps the lab organized. Either you knew the answer to my questions or could tell me whom to ask instead, no matter whether the question was “How can I do that?”, “Where is that?” or
“Has anybody in our lab ever done that?”. Your help and advice, especially regarding molecular biology, was greatly appreciated. It definitely wasn’t “all equally”!
Bernard, for all the patience when explaining things about photosynthesis and photoprotection, your help with PAM fluorometry and pigment analysis via HPLC, and entrusting me to supervise your Vertiefungskurs project when you were on parental leave, allowing me to “inherit” it as a side project.
Doris, for transforming Phaeo with all my plasmids, as well as maintenance of the resulting clones. Without you diligently taking care of them every time they needed to be re-plated I am sure some important ones would have gone missing sooner or later…
The students who assisted me throughout my studies as part of their Bachelor’s thesis, Master’s thesis, Vertiefungskurs or as a “Hiwi”: Teresa Hagen, Marc Halder, Mirta Jacobs, Simon Kienle, Dorothea Kleinpeter, Zeno Riester, Vincent Spegg and Florian Weeber. You did not only perform many experiments and provided valuable input, you also challenged and thereby (hopefully) improved my experimental planning skills.
C. Acknowledgements 117 Current and former members of the AG Kroth for the nice working atmosphere, fruitful discussions about science, as well as fun times inside and outside the lab: Alex for always having an open ear for scientific and non-scientific problems, going to concerts, enjoying barbecues and beers and the creation of Algaeman, Angelika for taking care of administrative things, Annette for midipreps, electroporations and shared trips to the special waste depot, Ansgar for helpful advice regarding bioinformatics, Chao for chinese dumplings and teaching me both useful and useless phrases in Chinese (somehow I can remember the useless stuff much better...), Guilan for hot pot and being funny without realizing it, Jan and Jens (nukular!) for pre-work coffee/breakfast/discussion sessions, Jochen for constantly “stealing”
and re-labeling eppi racks, pens, scissors and more, as well as taking over my apartment during my time in Toulouse, Julia for telling me about the available PhD position and the shared interest of teasing Martin, Lachy for his cheerful Aussie nature as well as proofreading parts of my thesis due to his “nativespeakeredness”, Lili for bao-baos, reverse-engineering the perfect cheesecake and selling me the best sofa ever, Loni for pre-work coffee/breakfast/discussion sessions and watching countless football games and Game of Thrones episodes together, Marc for lots of minipreps and stacking of pipette tips, as well as all the funny stories about things that have happened to him, Martin for supplying me with greek olive oil and oregano, Mirta for trips to the Summer Breeze festival and the design of Algaeman, Masha for her cheerful nature, Miriam for continued discussions about the definition of room temperature, Norico for introducing me to dinotoms, “Sachsias” for introducing me into my project as well as board game evenings and archery courses, and Shvaita for continuing the Aureochrome project.
I really enjoyed my time on M9 with its welcoming and friendly atmosphere between the different groups, and some legendary parties in the coffee corner or the botanical garden. The weekly badminton session (thanks to everybody who participated and special thanks to Matthias and Dietmar for their persistence in asking me to join until I finally agreed!) provided lots of fun and interesting discussions with beer and pizza afterwards.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, who always supported me and without them this thesis would never have been written.