A Specific Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the ATP Synthase Gene Significantly Improves Environmental Stress Tolerance of Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.

ABSTRACT: In response to a broad range of habitats and environmental stresses, cyanobacteria have evolved various effective acclimation strategies, which will be helpful for improving the stress tolerances of photosynthetic organisms, including higher plants. Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973 and PCC 7942 possess genomes that are 99.8% identical but exhibit significant differences in cell growth and stress tolerance. In this study, we found that a single amino acid substitution at F_oF₁ ATP synthase subunit α (AtpA), C252Y, is the primary contributor to the improved stress tolerance of S. elongatus UTEX 2973. Site-saturation mutagenesis experiments showed that point mutations of cysteine 252 to any of the four conjugated amino acids could significantly improve the

SUBMITTER: Lou W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6121992 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature