Adaptive thermostability of light-harvesting complexes in marine picocyanobacteria.

ABSTRACT: Marine Synechococcus play a key role in global oceanic primary productivity. Their wide latitudinal distribution has been attributed to the occurrence of lineages adapted to distinct thermal niches, but the physiological and molecular bases of this ecotypic differentiation remain largely unknown. By comparing six strains isolated from different latitudes, we showed that the thermostability of their light-harvesting complexes, called phycobilisomes (PBS), varied according to the average sea surface temperature at strain isolation site. Comparative analyses of thermal unfolding curves of the three phycobiliproteins (PBP) constituting PBS rods suggested that the differences in thermostability observed on whole PBSs relied on the distinct molecular flexibility and stability of their individual

SUBMITTER: Pittera J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5315467 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature