Making Chlamydomonas reinhardtii a better model organism: Tackling the inefficiency of nuclear transgene expression and improving methods for the generation and characterization of insertional mutant libraries

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii CHAPTER 1: Literature Review 1 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: a useful model organism for many purposes 2  Photosynthetic properties of C. reinhardtii 3  Genetic transformation of C. reinhardtii 5  Utilization of the C. reinhardtii chloroplast as a protein production factory ..... 5 Overview of C. reinhardtii properties that restrict its utility as a model organism ......... 7 Utilization of polycistronic genes in eukaryotic organisms 9  Viral 2A peptides 10 Mutagenesis and gene targeting 13  Insertional mutagenesis 16 CHAPTER 2: Development of an improved and versatile viral 2A platform for expression of polycistronic nuclear genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii 21 Abstract 22 22 Introduction 23