Impairment of O-antigen production confers resistance to grazing in a model amoeba-cyanobacterium predator-prey system.

ABSTRACT: The grazing activity of predators on photosynthetic organisms is a major mechanism of mortality and population restructuring in natural environments. Grazing is also one of the primary difficulties in growing cyanobacteria and other microalgae in large, open ponds for the production of biofuels, as contaminants destroy valuable biomass and prevent stable, continuous production of biofuel crops. To address this problem, we have isolated a heterolobosean amoeba, HGG1, that grazes upon unicellular and filamentous freshwater cyanobacterial species. We have established a model predator-prey system using this amoeba and Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. Application of amoebae to a library of mutants of S. elongatus led to the identification of a grazer-resistant knockout mutant of the wzm ABC O-

SUBMITTER: Simkovsky R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3478625 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature