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Transcriptome response of high- and low-light-adapted Prochlorococcus strains to changing iron availability

ABSTRACT: Prochlorococcus contributes significantly to ocean primary productivity. The link between primary productivity and iron in specific ocean regions is well established and iron limitation of Prochlorococcus cell division rates in these regions has been shown. However, the extent of ecotypic variation in iron metabolism among Prochlorococcus and the molecular basis for differences is not understood. Here, we examine the growth and transcriptional response of Prochlorococcus strains, MED4 and MIT9313, to changing iron concentrations. During steady state, MIT9313 sustains growth at an order-of-magnitude lower iron concentration than MED4. To explore this difference, we measured the whole-genome transcriptional response of each strain to abrupt iron starvation and rescue. Only four of the 1159 orthologs of MED4 and MIT9313 were differentially expressed in response to iron in both strains. However, in each strain, the expression of over a hundred additional genes changed, many of which are in labile genomic regions, suggesting a role for lateral gene transfer in establishing diversity of iron metabolism among Prochlorococcus. Furthermore, we found that MED4 lacks three genes near the iron-deficiency-induced gene (idiA) that are present and induced by iron stress in MIT9313. These genes are interesting targets for studying the adaptation of natural Prochlorococcus assemblages to local iron conditions as they show more diversity than other genomic regions in environmental metagenomic databases.

ORGANISM(S): Prochlorococcus marinus str. MIT 9313 Tiamatvirus PSSP7 Prochlorococcus marinus subsp. pastoris str. CCMP1986 Prochlorococcus phage P-SSM4

PROVIDER: GSE26533 | GEO | 2011/01/11

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA136653

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Prochlorococcus is a genus of abundant and ecologically important marine cyanobacteria. Here, we present the comprehensive comparison of the structure and composition of the transcriptomes of two closely related Prochlorococcus strains, which, despite their similarities, have adapted their gene pool to specific environmental constraints. We used large-scale strand-specific cDNA sequencing, microarray RNA profiling and computational analyses to characterize the transcriptomes of Prochlorococcus sp. MED4 and Prochlorococcus sp. MIT9313, representatives of the two major ecotypes adapted to high and low light conditions, respectively. We present genome-wide maps of transcriptional start sites (TSS) for both organisms. Our data suggest antisense transcription for three quarters of all genes. A direct comparison revealed very little conservation in the use of TSS and the nature of non-coding transcripts between both strains. We conclude that the major transcriptional output from these highly streamlined genomes consists of antisense RNA and that a hitherto unrecognized high degree of variability exists in the transcriptional architecture of these rapidly evolving prokaryotes. Furthermore, we detected extremely short 5M-bM-^@M-^Y untranslated regions with a median length of only 27 nt and 29 nt for MED4 and MIT9313, respectively, and noticed the absence of the Shine-Dalgarno motif, which is suggestive of alternative mechanisms for the initiation of translation. For 8 % of all protein-coding genes, the median length to the initiator codon is 10 nt or shorter, suggesting that leaderless translation and ribosomal protein S1-dependent translation constitute the primary avenues for protein synthesis in Prochlorococcus. Prochlorococcus cells were either grown under standard growth conditions or various stress conditions (darkness, high light, iron or nitrogen depletion, cold or heat stress). Stress conditions were subsequently pooled and hybridized on one microarray.

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Transcriptome response of high- and low-light-adapted Prochlorococcus strains to changing iron availability

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