Microevolution in cyanobacteria: Re-sequencing a motile substrain of synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Danika Trautmann, Björn Voß, Annegret Wilde, Salim Al-Babili, Wolfgang R. Hess*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

116 Scopus citations

Abstract

Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a widely used model cyanobacterium for studying photosynthesis, phototaxis, the production of biofuels and many other aspects. Here we present a re-sequencing study of the genome and seven plasmids of one of the most widely used Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 substrains, the glucose tolerant and motile Moscow or 'PCC-M' strain, revealing considerable evidence for recent microevolution. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) specifically shared between 'PCC-M' and the 'PCC-N and PCC-P' substrains indicate that 'PCC-M' belongs to the 'PCC' group of motile strains. The identified indels and SNPs in 'PCC-M' are likely to affect glucose tolerance, motility, phage resistance, certain stress responses as well as functions in the primary metabolism, potentially relevant for the synthesis of alkanes. Three SNPs in intergenic regions could affect the promoter activities of two protein-coding genes and one cis-antisense RNA. Two deletions in 'PCC-M' affect parts of clustered regularly interspaced short palindrome repeats-associated spacer-repeat regions on plasmid pSYSA, in one case by an unusual recombination between spacer sequences.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)435-448
Number of pages14
JournalDNA Research
Volume19
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CRISPR
  • Synechocystis sp. PCC
  • genome sequence
  • plasmid
  • substrain

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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