Understanding the Sub-Cellular Dynamics of Silicon Transportation and Synthesis in Diatoms Using Population-Level Data and Computational Optimization
Figure 3
Four compartments considered in the computational modeling and kinetics of their communication.
Compartment 1 is the environment from which diatom uptakes silicic acid by means of silicon transporter proteins (SIT) located on the cell membrane. Then silicon most likely stored in compartment 2, the cytoplasm, and transported to SDV, the compartment 3, again by means of SITs. In SDV the soluble silicon finally deposits and forms the silica frustule, which is compartment 4. Green arrows show the cell regulation over amount of SITs. Once the cell nucleus receives the related signals based on information from inside and outside the cell, with some mechanisms which are mostly unknown, it changes the level of SITs to control the inward flux of silicon to compartments. (This figure is a schematic graph. In reality the location of SITs is not completely clear.)