This Article Full Text (PDF) Other Versions of this Article: JB.01097-06v1 188/22/7796    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Steglich, C. Articles by Chisholm, S. W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Steglich, C. Articles by Chisholm, S. W.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01097-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Genome-wide analysis of light sensing in Prochlorococcus

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA; Humboldt University, Institute of Theoretical Biology, Invalidenstr. 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany; Harvard Medical School, Department of Genetics, Biopolymers Facility, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: chisholm{at}mit.edu.

	Abstract

Prochlorococcus MED4 has, with a total of only 1716 annotated protein-coding genes, the most compact genome of a free-living photoautotroph. Although light quality and quantity play an important role in regulating the growth rate of this organism in its natural habitat, the majority of known light-sensing proteins are absent from its genome. To explore the potential for light-sensing in this phototroph, we measured its global gene expression pattern in response to different light qualities and quantities using high density Affymetrix microarrays. Though seven different conditions were tested, only blue light elicited a strong response. In addition, hierarchical clustering revealed that the response to high white light and blue light was very similar, and different from that of the lower intensity of white light, suggesting that the actual sensing of high light is mediated via a blue light receptor. Bacterial cryptochromes seem to be good candidates for the blue light sensors. The existence of a signaling pathway for the redox state of the photosynthetic electron transport chain was suggested by the presence of genes that responded similarly to red and blue light, as well as genes that responded to the addition of DCMU, a specific inhibitor of photosystem II-mediated electron transport.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kilian, O., Steunou, A. S., Grossman, A. R., Bhaya, D. (2008). A Novel Two Domain-Fusion Protein in Cyanobacteria with Similarity to the CAB/ELIP/HLIP Superfamily: Evolutionary Implications and Regulation. Mol Plant 1: 155-166 [Abstract] [Full Text]