The regulation of HanA during heterocyst development in cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120

In response to deprivation of combined nitrogen, the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 develops heterocyst, which is specifically involved in the nitrogen fixation. In this study, we focused on the regulation of HanA, a histone-like protein, in heterocyst development. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay results showed that NtcA, a global nitrogen regulator necessary for heterocyst differentiation, could bind to two NtcA-binding motifs in the hanA promoter region. qPCR results also showed that NtcA may regulate the expression of hanA. By using the hanA promoter-controlled gfp as a reporter gene and performing western blot we found that the amount of HanA in mature heterocysts was decreased gradually.     

鱼腥蓝细菌PCC 7120中一个受到NtcA调控的基因alr1390

NtcA是鱼腥蓝细菌中一种重要的氮代谢调控蛋白质,参与异形胞的分化。许多受NtcA调控的基因都至少有一个保守的NtcA结合位点GTA-N8-TAC。经生物信息学分析,鱼腥蓝细菌PCC7120基因alr1390可能的转录起始位点的上游有一个保守的NtcA结合位点GTA-TAGTTTTC-TAC。【目的】为了鉴定alr1390和NtcA之间的关系,【方法】采用实时定量反转录PCR实验(Real-time RT-PCR)和电泳迁移率实验(Electrophoretic mobility shift assays,EMSA)对alr1390和NtcA之间的关系进行了分析。【结果】Real-timeRT-PCR结果显示,alr1390的转录水平在野生型鱼腥蓝细菌PCC7120中缺氮诱导后和诱导前持平,而在ntcA突变体中缺氮诱导12h后呈现上调趋势。但是EMSA实验中没有检测到明显的NtcA和alr1390启动子区片段结合的滞后带,却观察到一条拖带。【结论】这说明alr1390受到NtcA的调控。     

in-silico analysis suggests alterations in the function of XisA protein as a possible mechanism of butachlor toxicity in the nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120

Butachlor, a commonly used herbicide adversely affects the nitrogen fixing capability of Anabaena, an acclaimed nitrogen fixer in the Indian paddy fields. The nitrogen fixation in Anabaena is triggered by the excision of nifD element by xisA gene leading to rearrangement of nifD forming nifHDK operon in the heterocyst of Anabaena sp. PCC7120. Functional elucidation adjudged through in-silico analysis revealed that xisA belongs to integrase family of tyrosine recombinase. The predicted functional partners with XisA protein that have shown cooccurence with this protein in a network are mainly hypothetical proteins with unknown functions except psaK1 whose exact function in photosystem I is not yet known. The focus of this study was to find out the relation between XisA and butachlor using in-silico approaches. The XisA protein was modeled and its active sites were identified. Docking studies revealed that butachlor binds at the active site of XisA protein hampering its excision ability vis-à-vis nif genes in Anabaena sp. PCC7120. This study reveals that butachlor is not directly involved in hampering the nitrogen fixing ability of Anabaena sp. PCC7120 but by arresting the excision ability of XisA protein necessary for the functioning of nif gene and nitrogen fixation.