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Journal of Bacteriology, March 2008, p. 1554-1560, Vol. 190, No. 5
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01577-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

{alpha}-Tocopherol Is Essential for Acquired Chill-Light Tolerance in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Yang Yang, Chuntao Yin, Weizhi Li, and Xudong Xu*

State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, People's Republic of China

Received 29 September 2007/ Accepted 18 December 2007

Unlike Escherichia coli, the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 is insensitive to chill (5°C) in the dark but rapidly losses viability when exposed to chill in the light (100 µmol photons m–2 s–1). Preconditioning at a low temperature (15°C) greatly enhances the chill-light tolerance of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. This phenomenon is called acquired chill-light tolerance (ACLT). Preconditioned wild-type cells maintained a substantially higher level of {alpha}-tocopherol after exposure to chill-light stress. Mutants unable to synthesize {alpha}-tocopherol, such as slr1736, slr1737, slr0089, and slr0090 mutants, almost completely lost ACLT. When exposed to chill without light, these mutants showed no or a slight difference from the wild type. When complemented, the slr0089 mutant regained its ACLT. Copper-regulated expression of slr0090 from PpetE controlled the level of {alpha}-tocopherol and ACLT. We conclude that {alpha}-tocopherol is essential for ACLT of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. The role of {alpha}-tocopherol in ACLT may be based largely on a nonantioxidant activity that is not possessed by other tocopherols or pathway intermediates.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, People's Republic of China. Phone: 86-27-68780659. Fax: 86-27-68780123. E-mail: xux{at}ihb.ac.cn

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 28 December 2007.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, March 2008, p. 1554-1560, Vol. 190, No. 5
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01577-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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