Project description:Cyanobacteria play pivotal roles in global biogeochemical cycles through oxygenic photosynthesis. To maintain cellular homeostasis, these organisms employ sophisticated acclimation mechanisms to adapt to environmental fluctuations, particularly nitrogen availability. While nitrogen deprivation triggers dormancy, excess ammonium exerts toxic effects on cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic organisms - a phenomenon whose acclimation mechanisms remain poorly understood. TurboID based proximity labeling coupled with quantitative proteomics revealed a robust set of putative Sll0528 interacting proteins.
Project description:Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photoautotrophs responsible for a substantial proportion of nitrogen fixation and primary production in the hydrosphere. Non-nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria, such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, depend of the availability of nitrogenized species to survive. Therefore, an intricate regulatory network around the transcriptional factor NtcA maintains the homeostasis of nitrogen in these organisms. The mechanisms controlling NtcA activity are well understood but a comprehensive study of its regulon is missing in Synechocystis. To define NtcA regulon during the early stage of nitrogen starvation, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChiP-seq), in parallel with genome level transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq). By combining both methods we assigned 51 activated and 28 repressed genes directly by NtcA. Most of direct targets included genes involved in nitrogen and carbon metabolism and photosynthesis. NtcA regulon also included 8 ncRNAs, of which ncr0710, Syr6 and NsiR7 were experimentally validated. Intriguingly, we identified several NtcA intragenic binding sites suggesting that NtcA can modulate transcriptional expression by binding along the whole transcript and not only in the promoter region as previously though. Finally, the transcriptional implication of PipX was analyzed in some NtcA-targets genes, revealing that PipX assists NtcA in the global nitrogen regulation in Synechocystis.
Project description:Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photoautotrophs responsible for a substantial proportion of nitrogen fixation and primary production in the hydrosphere. Non-nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria, such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, depend of the availability of nitrogenized species to survive. Therefore, an intricate regulatory network around the transcriptional factor NtcA maintains the homeostasis of nitrogen in these organisms. The mechanisms controlling NtcA activity are well understood but a comprehensive study of its regulon is missing in Synechocystis. To define NtcA regulon during the early stage of nitrogen starvation, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChiP-seq), in parallel with genome level transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq). By combining both methods we assigned 51 activated and 28 repressed genes directly by NtcA. Most of direct targets included genes involved in nitrogen and carbon metabolism and photosynthesis. NtcA regulon also included 8 ncRNAs, of which ncr0710, Syr6 and NsiR7 were experimentally validated. Intriguingly, we identified several NtcA intragenic binding sites suggesting that NtcA can modulate transcriptional expression by binding along the whole transcript and not only in the promoter region as previously though. Finally, the transcriptional implication of PipX was analyzed in some NtcA-targets genes, revealing that PipX assists NtcA in the global nitrogen regulation in Synechocystis.
Project description:Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform plant-like oxygenic photosynthesis. They evolved an inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanism to adapt to low CO2 conditions. Quantitative phospho-proteomics was applied to analyze regulatory features during the acclimation to low CO2 conditions in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Overall, more than 2500 proteins were quantified, equivalent to approximately 70% of the Synechocystis theoretical proteome. Proteins with changing abundances correlated largely with mRNA expression levels. Functional annotation of the non-correlating proteins revealed an enrichment of key metabolic processes fundamental for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Furthermore, 105 phospho-proteins harboring over 200 site-specific phosphorylation events were identified. Subunits of the bicarbonate transporter BCT1 and the redox switch protein CP12 were among phospho-proteins with significantly reduced phosphorylation levels at lower CO2, whereas the serine/threonine protein kinase SpkC revealed increased phosphorylation levels. The corresponding spkC mutant was characterized and showed decreased ability to acclimate to low CO2 conditions. Possible phosphorylation targets of SpkC including a BCT1 subunit were identified by phospho-proteomics. Collectively, our study highlights the importance of post-transcriptional regulation of protein abundances as well as post-translational regulation by protein phosphorylation for the successful acclimation towards low CO2 conditions in Synechocystis and possibly among cyanobacteria.
Project description:Cyanobacteria have shaped the earth’s biosphere as the first oxygenic photoautotrophs and still play an important role in many ecosystems. The ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions is an essential characteristic in order to ensure survival. To this end, numerous studies have shown that bacteria use protein post-translational modifications such as Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in cell signalling, adaptation and regulation. Nevertheless, our knowledge of cyanobacterial phosphoproteomes and their dynamic response to environmental stimuli is relatively limited. In this study, we applied gel-free methods and high accuracy mass spectrometry towards the unbiased detection of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation events in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. We could identify over 300 phosphorylation events in cultures grown on nitrate as exclusive nitrogen source. Chemical dimethylation labelling was applied to investigate proteome and phosphoproteome dynamics during nitrogen starvation. Our dataset describes the most comprehensive (phospho)proteome of Synechocystis to date, identifying 2,382 proteins and 183 phosphorylation events and quantifying 2,111 proteins and 148 phosphorylation events during nitrogen starvation. Global protein phosphorylation levels were increased in response to nitrogen depletion after 24 hours. Among the proteins with increased phosphorylation, the PII signalling protein showed the highest fold-change, serving as positive control. Other proteins with increased phosphorylation levels comprised functions in photosynthesis and in carbon and nitrogen metabolism. This study reveals dynamics of Synechocystis phosphoproteome in response to environmental stimuli and suggests an important role of protein Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in fundamental mechanisms of homeostatic control in cyanobacteria.
Project description:Unicellular cyanobacteria that do not fix nitrogen can survive prolonged periods of nitrogen starvation as bleached cells in a non-growing, dormant state. Upon re-addition of a usable nitrogen source, bleached cultures re-green within 48 hours and the cells return to vegetative growth. Here we investigated the process of resuscitation at the physiological and molecular level. Almost immediately upon nitrate addition, the cells initiate an amazingly organized resuscitation program: they first turn on respiration, gaining energy and activating the genes of the entire translational apparatus, genes for ATP synthesis and nitrate assimilation. Only after about 12 hours, the cells rebuild the photosynthetic apparatus and switch on photosynthesis. Analysis of the transcriptome in recovering cells shows a perfect match to the physiological processes and reveals a paramount dynamics of non-coding RNAs in awaking cells. This genetically encoded program ensures rapid colonization of habitats, in which nitrogen starvation imposes a recurring growth limitation.
Project description:Unicellular cyanobacteria that do not fix nitrogen can survive prolonged periods of nitrogen starvation as bleached cells in a non-growing, dormant state. Upon re-addition of a usable nitrogen source, bleached cultures re-green within 48 hours and the cells return to vegetative growth. Here we investigated the process of resuscitation at the physiological and molecular level. Almost immediately upon nitrate addition, the cells initiate an amazingly organized resuscitation program: they first turn on respiration, gaining energy and activating the genes of the entire translational apparatus, genes for ATP synthesis and nitrate assimilation. Only after about 12 hours, the cells rebuild the photosynthetic apparatus and switch on photosynthesis. Analysis of the transcriptome in recovering cells shows a perfect match to the physiological processes and reveals a paramount dynamics of non-coding RNAs in awaking cells. This genetically encoded program ensures rapid colonization of habitats, in which nitrogen starvation imposes a recurring growth limitation. Synechocstis PCC 6803 WT cells were subjected to nitrogen limitation for 14d, then nitrogen was re-added to monitor recovery of the cells. Samples were taken before nitrogen depletion, after 14d of nitrogen depletion and 4h, 13h, 24h and 48h after nitrogen re-addition. Samples were taken in biological replicates for all timepoints besides 48h nitrogen recovery.
Project description:Small proteins are an underinvestigated class of gene products in all domains of life. Here we describe the role of NsiR6/NblD, a cysteine-rich 66 amino acid small protein in the acclimation response of cyanobacteria to nitrogen starvation. Phycobilisomes, the macromolecular pigment-protein complexes for photosynthetic light harvesting, are rapidly degraded upon shift to low nitrogen. Deletion of nblD in Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 prevents this degradation, indicated by the non-bleaching (nbl) phenotype. Complementation by a plasmid-localized gene copy fully restored the phenotype of the wild type, while overexpression of NblD under nitrogen-replete conditions did not lead to any phenotypical effect, different from the unrelated proteolysis adaptors NblA1 and NblA2, which can trigger phycobilisome degradation ectopically. However, transcriptome analysis revealed that nitrogen starvation induced nblA1/2 transcription in the ΔnblD strain, which excluded the possibility that the nbl phenotype was due to a possible NblD function as transcriptional co-regulator. In contrast, fractionation experiments indicated the presence of NblD in the phycobilisome fraction and pull-down experiments with NblD containing a triple FLAG tag identified the α and β phycocyanin subunits as the only two co-purifying proteins. Homologs of NblD exist in all cyanobacteria that use phycobilisomes but not in the genera Prochlorococcus and Acaryochloris which use alternative light-harvesting mechanisms. These data suggest that NblD plays a crucial role in the coordinated dismantling of phycobilisomes when nitrogen becomes limiting. We performed a microarray, to examine the global expression pattern of wild type and ∆nblD isolated RNA after 0h and 3h past induction of nitrogen depletion (-N) to detect potential differences in the nitrogen acclimation process.
Project description:Gene expression changes were followed in cultures of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 substrain GT-T cultivated at ambient air or supplemented with 3% CO2. The acclimation to different CO2 concentrations is crucial for photoautotrophic organisms living in aquatic environments such as cyanobacteria. Samples were taken before and 1 h and 24 h after transfer to the3 % CO2 environment. The analyzed strains were wild type, a deletion mutant of gene ssl2982/rpoZ (ΔrpoZ) and two suppressor strains (R1, ΔrpoZ-S1 and R2, ΔrpoZ-S2). In cyanobacteria, elevated CO2 is known to down-regulate carbon concentrating mechanisms and accelerate photosynthesis and growth, but mechanism(s) of carbon signalling remains only poorly understood. Here we reveal a novel signalling cascade connecting the amount of CO2 and growth in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Deletion of the small ω subunit of the RNA polymerase (RNAP) in the ΔrpoZ strain prevents normal high-CO2-induced up-regulation of numerous photosynthetic genes, and low expression of peptidoglycan synthesis genes induced lysis of dividing ΔrpoZ cells in high CO2. Spontaneously raised secondary mutations in the ssr1600 gene rescued the high-CO2-sensitive phenotype of the ΔrpoZ strain. Biochemical analyses showed that the ssr1600 gene encodes an anti-σ factor antagonist of group 2 σ factor SigC, and 3D structural modelling suggest that Slr1861 functions as an anti-SigC factor. In ΔrpoZ, excess formation of RNAP-SigC lead to high CO2 sensitive phenotype, whereas the drastically reduced Ssr1600 content in the suppressor mutants reduce the formation of the RNAP-SigC holoenzyme to the similar level as in the control strain, allowing almost normal transcriptome and growth of suppressor lines in high CO2. We propose that the SigC σ factor, the anti-SigC factor Slr1861 and the anti-SigC antagonist Ssr1600 forms a growth regulating signalling cascade in cyanobacteria.
Project description:The sRNA NsiR4 is involved in nitrogen assimilation control in cyanobacteria by targeting glutamine synthetase inactivating factor IF7