TY - JOUR
T1 - The search for new chlorophyll-binding proteins in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
AU - Cheregi, Otilia
AU - Vermaas, Willem
AU - Funk, Christiane
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Josh Vermaas for writing and running the program to identify ORFs coding for relatively short peptides with a potential membrane spanning helix. We also acknowledge the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education for financial support. The biochemical part of the research was supported by grants from the Swedish Energy Agency , the Royal Swedish Academy and Umeå University to CF. Molecular-genetic research on this project was supported by the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-08ER15543). OC thanks the Wenner-Gren Foundation for her postdoctoral fellowship.
PY - 2012/11/30
Y1 - 2012/11/30
N2 - Light harvesting provides a major challenge in the production of biofuels from microorganisms; while sunlight provides the energy necessary for biomass/biofuel production, at the same time it damages the cells. The genome of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 was searched for open reading frames that might code for yet unidentified chlorophyll-binding proteins with low molecular mass that could be involved in stress-adaptation. Amongst 9167 hypothetical ORFs corresponding to potential polypeptides of 100 amino acids or less, two were identified that had the potential to be pigment-binding, because they (i) encoded a potential transmembrane region, (ii) showed sequence similarity with known chlorophyll-binding domains, (iii) were conserved in other cyanobacterial species, and (iv) their codon adaptation index indicated significant translation probability. The two ORFs were located complementary (antisense) and internal to the ferrochelatase (hemH) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase (pdh) genes and therefore were named a-fch and a-pdh, respectively. Transcription of both genes was confirmed; however, no translated proteins could be detected immunologically. Whereas mutations within a-pdh or a-fch did not lead to any obvious phenotype, it is clear that transcripts and proteins over and above the currently known set may play a role in defining the physiology of cyanobacteria and other organisms.
AB - Light harvesting provides a major challenge in the production of biofuels from microorganisms; while sunlight provides the energy necessary for biomass/biofuel production, at the same time it damages the cells. The genome of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 was searched for open reading frames that might code for yet unidentified chlorophyll-binding proteins with low molecular mass that could be involved in stress-adaptation. Amongst 9167 hypothetical ORFs corresponding to potential polypeptides of 100 amino acids or less, two were identified that had the potential to be pigment-binding, because they (i) encoded a potential transmembrane region, (ii) showed sequence similarity with known chlorophyll-binding domains, (iii) were conserved in other cyanobacterial species, and (iv) their codon adaptation index indicated significant translation probability. The two ORFs were located complementary (antisense) and internal to the ferrochelatase (hemH) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase (pdh) genes and therefore were named a-fch and a-pdh, respectively. Transcription of both genes was confirmed; however, no translated proteins could be detected immunologically. Whereas mutations within a-pdh or a-fch did not lead to any obvious phenotype, it is clear that transcripts and proteins over and above the currently known set may play a role in defining the physiology of cyanobacteria and other organisms.
KW - Antenna
KW - Chlorophyll-binding protein
KW - Light-harvesting
KW - Non-photochemical quenching
KW - Open reading frame
KW - Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2012.06.022
DO - 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2012.06.022
M3 - Article
C2 - 22759916
AN - SCOPUS:84867648797
SN - 0168-1656
VL - 162
SP - 124
EP - 133
JO - Journal of Biotechnology
JF - Journal of Biotechnology
IS - 1
ER -