FraH is required for reorganization of intracellular membranes during heterocyst differentiation in Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120.

ABSTRACT: In the filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria, two different cell types, the CO(2)-fixing vegetative cells and the N(2)-fixing heterocysts, exchange nutrients and regulators for diazotrophic growth. In the model organism Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120, inactivation of fraH produces filament fragmentation under conditions of combined nitrogen deprivation, releasing numerous isolated heterocysts. Transmission electron microscopy of samples prepared by either high-pressure cryo-fixation or chemical fixation showed that the heterocysts of a ΔfraH mutant lack the intracellular membrane system structured close to the heterocyst poles, known as the honeycomb, that is characteristic of wild-type heterocysts. Using a green fluorescent protein translational fusion to the carboxyl terminus of Fr

SUBMITTER: Merino-Puerto V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3232833 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature