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Journal of Bacteriology, April 2003, p. 2306-2314, Vol. 185, No. 7
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.7.2306-2314.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Heterocyst-Specific Expression of patB, a Gene Required for Nitrogen Fixation in Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120

Kathryn M. Jones,{dagger} William J. Buikema, and Robert Haselkorn*

Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Received 5 July 2002/ Accepted 8 January 2003

The patB gene product is required for growth and survival of the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 in the absence of combined nitrogen. A patB::gfp fusion demonstrated that this gene is expressed exclusively in heterocysts. patB mutants have a normal initial pattern of heterocyst spacing along the filament but differentiate excess heterocysts after several days in the absence of combined nitrogen. Expression of hetR and patS, two critical regulators of the heterocyst development cascade, are normal for patB mutants, indicating that patB acts downstream of them in the differentiation pathway. A patB deletion mutant suffers an almost complete cessation of growth and nitrogen fixation within 24 h of combined nitrogen removal. In contrast, a new PatB mutant that is defective in its N-terminal ferredoxin domain, or a previously described mutant that has a frameshift removing its C-terminal helix-turn-helix domain, grows very slowly and differentiates multiple contiguous heterocysts under nitrogen-deficient conditions.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, 920 East 58th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Phone: (773) 702-1069. Fax: (773) 702-2853. E-mail: r-haselkorn{at}uchicago.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Journal of Bacteriology, April 2003, p. 2306-2314, Vol. 185, No. 7
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.7.2306-2314.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Wang, Y., Xu, X. (2005). Regulation by hetC of Genes Required for Heterocyst Differentiation and Cell Division in Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120. J. Bacteriol. 187: 8489-8493 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Khudyakov, I. Y., Golden, J. W. (2004). Different functions of HetR, a master regulator of heterocyst differentiation in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, can be separated by mutation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101: 16040-16045 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Ning, D., Xu, X. (2004). alr0117, a two-component histidine kinase gene, is involved in heterocyst development in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. Microbiology 150: 447-453 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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