The GGDEF protein Dgc2 suppresses both motility and biofilm formation in the filamentous cyanobacterium Leptolyngbya boryana.

Colony pattern formations of bacteria with motility manifest complicated morphological self-organization phenomena. Leptolyngbya boryana is a filamentous cyanobacterium, which has been used as a genetic model organism for studying metabolism including photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation. A widely used type strain [wild type (WT) in this article] of this species has not been reported to show any motile activity. However, we isolated a spontaneous mutant strain that shows active motility (gliding activity) to give rise to complicated colony patterns, including comet-like wandering clusters and disk-like rotating vortices on solid media. Whole-genome resequencing identified multiple mutations in the genome of the mutant strain. We confirmed that inactivation of the candidate gene dgc2 (LBDG_02920) in the WT background was sufficient to give rise to motility and morphologically complex colony patterns. This gene encodes a protein containing the GGDEF motif which is conserved at the catalytic domain of diguanylate cyclase (DGC). Although DGC has been reported to be involved in biofilm formation, the dgc2 mutant significantly facilitated biofilm formation, suggesting a role for the dgc2 gene in suppressing both gliding motility and biofilm formation. Thus, Leptolyngbya is expected to be an excellent genetic model for studying dynamic colony pattern formation and to provide novel insights into the role of DGC family genes in biofilm formation. IMPORTANCE Self-propelled bacteria often exhibit complex collective behaviors, such as formation of dense-moving clusters, which are exemplified by wandering comet-like and rotating disk-like colonies; however, the molecular details of how these structures are formed are scant. We found that a strain of the filamentous cyanobacterium Leptolyngbya deficient in the GGDEF protein gene dgc2 elicits motility and complex and dynamic colony pattern formation, including comet-like and disk-like clusters. Although c-di-GMP has been reported to activate biofilm formation in some bacterial species, disruption of dgc2 unexpectedly enhanced it, suggesting a novel role for this GGDEF protein for inhibiting both colony pattern formation and biofilm formation.

Scattered migrating colony formation in the filamentous cyanobacterium, Pseudanabaena sp. NIES-4403.

BACKGROUND: Bacteria have been reported to exhibit complicated morphological colony patterns on solid media, depending on intracellular, and extracellular factors such as motility, cell propagation, and cell-cell interaction. We isolated the filamentous cyanobacterium, Pseudanabaena sp. NIES-4403 (Pseudanabaena, hereafter), that forms scattered (discrete) migrating colonies on solid media. While the scattered colony pattern has been observed in some bacterial species, the mechanism underlying such a pattern still remains obscure. RESULTS: We studied the morphology of Pseudanabaena migrating collectively and found that this species forms randomly scattered clusters varying in size and further consists of a mixture of comet-like wandering clusters and disk-like rotating clusters. Quantitative analysis of the formation of these wandering and rotating clusters showed that bacterial filaments tend to follow trajectories of previously migrating filaments at velocities that are dependent on filament length. Collisions between filaments occurred without crossing paths, which enhanced their nematic alignments, giving rise to bundle-like colonies. As cells increased and bundles aggregated, comet-like wandering clusters developed. The direction and velocity of the movement of cells in comet-like wandering clusters were highly coordinated. When the wandering clusters entered into a circular orbit, they turned into rotating clusters, maintaining a more stable location. Disk-like rotating clusters may rotate for days, and the speed of cells within a rotating cluster increases from the center to the outmost part of the cluster. Using a mathematical modeling with simplified assumption we reproduced some features of the scattered pattern including migrating clusters. CONCLUSION: Based on these observations, we propose that Pseudanabaena forms scattered migrating colonies that undergo a series of transitions involving several morphological patterns. A simplified model is able to reproduce some features of the observed migrating clusters.

Na+/Ca2+ exchanger mediates cold Ca2+ signaling conserved for temperature-compensated circadian rhythms.

Circadian rhythms are based on biochemical oscillations generated by clock genes/proteins, which independently evolved in animals, fungi, plants, and cyanobacteria. Temperature compensation of the oscillation speed is a common feature of the circadian clocks, but the evolutionary-conserved mechanism has been unclear. Here, we show that Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) mediates cold-responsive Ca2+ signaling important for the temperature-compensated oscillation in mammalian cells. In response to temperature decrease, NCX elevates intracellular Ca2+, which activates Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II and accelerates transcriptional oscillations of clock genes. The cold-responsive Ca2+ signaling is conserved among mice, Drosophila, and Arabidopsis The mammalian cellular rhythms and Drosophila behavioral rhythms were severely attenuated by NCX inhibition, indicating essential roles of NCX in both temperature compensation and autonomous oscillation. NCX also contributes to the temperature-compensated transcriptional rhythms in cyanobacterial clock. Our results suggest that NCX-mediated Ca2+ signaling is a common mechanism underlying temperature-compensated circadian rhythms both in eukaryotes and prokaryotes.

Involvement of glycogen metabolism in circadian control of UV resistance in cyanobacteria.

Most organisms harbor circadian clocks as endogenous timing systems in order to adapt to daily environmental changes, such as exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. It has been hypothesized that the circadian clock evolved to prevent UV-sensitive activities, such as DNA replication and cell division, during the daytime. Indeed, circadian control of UV resistance has been reported in several eukaryotic organisms, from algae to higher organisms, although the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 exhibits a circadian rhythm in resistance to UV-C and UV-B light, which is higher during subjective dawn and lower during subjective dusk. Nullification of the clock gene cluster kaiABC or the DNA-photolyase phr abolished rhythmicity with constitutively lower resistance to UV-C light, and amino acid substitutions of KaiC altered the period lengths of the UV-C resistance rhythm. In order to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the circadian regulation of UV-C resistance, transposon insertion mutants that alter UV-C resistance were isolated. Mutations to the master circadian output mediator genes sasA and rpaA and the glycogen degradation enzyme gene glgP abolished circadian rhythms of UV-C resistance with constitutively high UV-C resistance. Combining these results with further experiments using ATP synthesis inhibitor and strains with modified metabolic pathways, we showed that UV-C resistance is weakened by directing more metabolic flux from the glycogen degradation to catabolic pathway such as oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and glycolysis. We suggest glycogen-related metabolism in the dark affects circadian control in UV sensitivity, while the light masks this effect through the photolyase function.

A theoretical morphological model for quantitative description of the three-dimensional floral morphology in water lily (Nymphaea).

Water lilies (Nymphaea spp.) have diverse floral morphologies. Water lilies are not only commonly used as ornamental plants, but they are also important for understanding the diversification of basal angiosperms. Although the diversity in floral morphology of water lily provides useful information for evolutionary biology, horticulture, and horticultural science, it is difficult to describe and analyze the three-dimensional morphology of flowers. In this study, we propose a method to describe the floral morphology of water lily using a three-dimensional theoretical morphological model. The theoretical model was constructed based on three components, i.e., (1) the gradual change in size of floral organs, (2) spiral phyllotaxis, and (3) the interpolation of elevation angles, which were integrated into the model. We generated three-dimensional representation of water lily flowers and visualized theoretical morphospaces by varying each morphological parameter. The theoretical morphospace is a mathematical space of morphological spectrum generated by a theoretical morphological model. These morphospaces seems to display the large part of morphological variations of water lily. We measured morphological parameters of real flowers based on our theoretical model and display the occupation pattern of morphological parameters. We also surveyed the relation between morphological parameters and flower shape descriptions found in a catalog. In some parameters, we found breeders' description can link to our morphological model. In addition, the relationship between the global features of floral morphology and the parameters of the theoretical model was calculated with flower silhouettes simulated with a range of parameter values and the global features of the silhouette. We used two simple indices to assess the global morphological features, which were calculated with the convex hull. The results indicated that our method can effectively provide an objective and quantitative overview of the diversity in the floral morphology of water lily.

Damped circadian oscillation in the absence of KaiA in Synechococcus.

Proteins KaiA, KaiB and KaiC constitute a biochemical circadian oscillator in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus. It has been reported kaiA inactivation completely abolishes circadian oscillations. However, we show here that kaiBC promoter activity exhibits a damped, low-amplitude oscillation with a period of approximately 24 h in kaiA-inactivated strains. The damped rhythm resonates with external cycles with a period of 24-26 h, indicating that its natural frequency is similar to that of the circadian clock. Double-mutation experiments reveal that kaiC, kaiB, and sasA (encoding a KaiC-binding histidine kinase) are all required for the damped oscillation. Further analysis suggests that the kaiA-less damped transcriptional rhythm requires KaiB-KaiC complex formation and the transcription-translation feedback loop, but not the KaiC phosphorylation cycle. Our results provide insights into mechanisms that could potentially underlie the diurnal/circadian behaviors observed in other bacterial species that possess kaiB and kaiC homologues but lack a kaiA homologue.

Low temperature nullifies the circadian clock in cyanobacteria through Hopf bifurcation.

Cold temperatures lead to nullification of circadian rhythms in many organisms. Two typical scenarios explain the disappearance of rhythmicity: the first is oscillation death, which is the transition from self-sustained oscillation to damped oscillation that occurs at a critical temperature. The second scenario is oscillation arrest, in which oscillation terminates at a certain phase. In the field of nonlinear dynamics, these mechanisms are called the Hopf bifurcation and the saddle-node on an invariant circle bifurcation, respectively. Although these mechanisms lead to distinct dynamical properties near the critical temperature, it is unclear to which scenario the circadian clock belongs. Here we reduced the temperature to dampen the reconstituted circadian rhythm of phosphorylation of the recombinant cyanobacterial clock protein KaiC. The data led us to conclude that Hopf bifurcation occurred at ∼19 °C. Below this critical temperature, the self-sustained rhythms of KaiC phosphorylation transformed to damped oscillations, which are predicted by the Hopf bifurcation theory. Moreover, we detected resonant oscillations below the critical temperature when temperature was periodically varied, which was reproduced by numerical simulations. Our findings suggest that the transition to a damped oscillation through Hopf bifurcation contributes to maintaining the circadian rhythm of cyanobacteria through resonance at cold temperatures.

The initiation of nocturnal dormancy in Synechococcus as an active process.

BACKGROUND: Most organisms, especially photoautotrophs, alter their behaviours in response to day-night alternations adaptively because of their great reliance on light. Upon light-to-dark transition, dramatic and universal decreases in transcription level of the majority of the genes in the genome of the unicellular cyanobacterium, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 are observed. Because Synechococcus is an obligate photoautotroph, it has been generally assumed that repression of the transcription in the dark (dark repression) would be caused by a nocturnal decrease in photosynthetic activities through the reduced availability of energy (e.g. adenosine triphosphate (ATP)) needed for mRNA synthesis. RESULTS: However, against this general assumption, we obtained evidence that the rapid and dynamic dark repression is an active process. Although the addition of photosynthesis inhibitors to cells exposed to light mimicked transcription profiles in the dark, it did not significantly affect the cellular level of ATP. By contrast, when ATP levels were decreased by the inhibition of both photosynthesis and respiration, the transcriptional repression was attenuated through inhibition of RNA degradation. This observation indicates that Synechococcus actively downregulates genome-wide transcription in the dark. Even though the level of total mRNA dramatically decreased in the dark, Synechococcus cells were still viable, and they do not need de novo transcription for their survival in the dark for at least 48 hours. CONCLUSIONS: Dark repression appears to enable cells to enter into nocturnal dormancy as a feed-forward process, which would be advantageous for their survival under periodic nocturnal conditions.

Mathematical study of pattern formation accompanied by heterocyst differentiation in multicellular cyanobacterium.

The filamentous cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, is one of the simplest models of a multicellular system showing cellular differentiation. In nitrogen-deprived culture, undifferentiated vegetative cells differentiate into heterocysts at ~10-cell intervals along the cellular filament. As undifferentiated cells divide, the number of cells between heterocysts (segment length) increases, and a new heterocyst appears in the intermediate region. To understand how the heterocyst pattern is formed and maintained, we constructed a one-dimensional cellular automaton (CA) model of the heterocyst pattern formation. The dynamics of vegetative cells is modeled by a stochastic transition process including cell division, differentiation and increase of cell age (maturation). Cell division and differentiation depend on the time elapsed after the last cell division, the "cell age". The model dynamics was mathematically analyzed by a two-step Markov approximation. In the first step, we determined steady state of cell age distribution among vegetative cell population. In the second step, we determined steady state distribution of segment length among segment population. The analytical solution was consistent with the results of numerical simulations. We then compared the analytical solution with the experimental data, and quantitatively estimated the immeasurable intercellular kinetics. We found that differentiation is initially independent of cellular maturation, but becomes dependent on maturation as the pattern formation evolves. Our mathematical model and analysis enabled us to quantify the internal cellular dynamics at various stages of the heterocyst pattern formation.

Hypersensitive photic responses and intact genome-wide transcriptional control without the KaiC phosphorylation cycle in the Synechococcus circadian system.

Cyanobacteria are unique organisms with remarkably stable circadian oscillations. These are controlled by a network architecture that comprises two regulatory factors: posttranslational oscillation (PTO) and a transcription/translation feedback loop (TTFL). The clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC are essential for the circadian rhythm of the unicellular species Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. Temperature-compensated autonomous cycling of KaiC phosphorylation has been proposed as the primary oscillator mechanism that maintains the circadian clock, even in the dark, and it controls genome-wide gene expression rhythms under continuous-light conditions (LL). However, the kaiC(EE) mutation (where "EE" represents the amino acid changes Ser431Glu and Thr432Glu), where phosphorylation cycling does not occur in vivo, has a damped but clear kaiBC expression rhythm with a long period. This suggests that there must be coupling between the robust PTO and the "slave" unstable TTFL. Here, we found that the kaiC(EE) mutant strain in LL was hypersensitive to the dark acclimation required for phase shifting. Twenty-three percent of the genes in the kaiC(EE) mutant strain exhibited genome-wide transcriptional rhythms with a period of 48 h in LL. The circadian phase distribution was also conserved significantly in most of the wild-type and kaiC(EE) mutant strain cycling genes, which suggests that the output mechanism was not damaged severely even in the absence of KaiC phosphorylation cycles. These results strongly suggest that the KaiC phosphorylation cycle is not essential for generating the genome-wide rhythm under light conditions, whereas it is important for appropriate circadian timing in the light and dark.

Circadian yin-yang regulation and its manipulation to globally reprogram gene expression.

BACKGROUND: The cyanobacterial circadian program exerts genome-wide control of gene expression. KaiC undergoes rhythms of phosphorylation that are regulated by interactions with KaiA and KaiB. The phosphorylation status of KaiC is thought to mediate global transcription via output factors SasA, CikA, LabA, RpaA, and RpaB. Overexpression of kaiC has been reported to globally repress gene expression. RESULTS: Here, we show that the positive circadian component KaiA upregulates "subjective dusk" genes and that its overexpression deactivates rhythmic gene expression without significantly affecting growth rates in constant light. We analyze the global patterns of expression that are regulated by KaiA versus KaiC and find in contrast to the previous report of KaiC repression that there is a "yin-yang" regulation of gene expression whereby kaiA overexpression activates "dusk genes" and represses "dawn genes," whereas kaiC overexpression complementarily activates dawn genes and represses dusk genes. Moreover, continuous induction of kaiA latched KaiABC-regulated gene expression to provide constitutively increased transcript levels of diverse endogenous and heterologous genes that are expressed in the predominant subjective dusk phase. In addition to analyzing KaiA regulation of endogenous gene expression, we apply these insights to the expression of heterologous proteins whose products are of potential value, namely human proinsulin, foreign luciferase, and exogenous hydrogenase. CONCLUSIONS: Both KaiC and KaiA complementarily contribute to the regulation of circadian gene expression via yin-yang switching. Circadian patterns can be reprogrammed by overexpression of kaiA or kaiC to constitutively enhance gene expression, and this reprogramming can improve 24/7 production of heterologous proteins that are useful as pharmaceuticals or biofuels.

Attenuation of the posttranslational oscillator via transcription-translation feedback enhances circadian-phase shifts in Synechococcus.

Circadian rhythms are endogenous biological timing processes that are ubiquitous in organisms ranging from cyanobacteria to humans. In the photoautotrophic unicellular cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, under continuous light (LL) conditions, the transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL) of KaiC generates a rhythmic change in the accumulation of KaiC relative to KaiA clock proteins (KaiC/KaiA ratio), which peak and trough at subjective dawn and dusk, respectively. However, the role of TTFL in the cyanobacterial circadian system remains unclear because it is not an essential requirement for the basic oscillation driven by the Kai-based posttranslational oscillator (PTO) and the transcriptional output mechanisms. Here, we show that TTFL is important for the circadian photic resetting property in Synechococcus. The robustness of PTO, which is exemplified by the amplitude of the KaiC phosphorylation cycle, changed depending on the KaiC/KaiA ratio, which was cyclic under LL. After cells were transferred from LL to the dark, the clock protein levels remained constant in the dark. When cells were transferred from LL to continuous dark at subjective dawn, the KaiC phosphorylation cycle was attenuated with a lower KaiC/KaiA ratio, a higher KaiC phosphorylation level, and a lower amplitude than that in cells transferred at subjective dusk. We also found that the greater the degree to which PTO was attenuated in continuous dark, the greater the phase shifts upon the subsequent light exposure. Based on these results, we propose that TTFL enhances resetting of the Kai-based PTO in Synechococcus.

Genome-wide and heterocyst-specific circadian gene expression in the filamentous Cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120.

The filamentous, heterocystous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 is one of the simplest multicellular organisms that show both morphological pattern formation with cell differentiation (heterocyst formation) and circadian rhythms. Therefore, it potentially provides an excellent model in which to analyze the relationship between circadian functions and multicellularity. However, detailed cyanobacterial circadian regulation has been intensively analyzed only in the unicellular species Synechococcus elongatus. In contrast to the highest-amplitude cycle in Synechococcus, we found that none of the kai genes in Anabaena showed high-amplitude expression rhythms. Nevertheless, ~80 clock-controlled genes were identified. We constructed luciferase reporter strains to monitor the expression of some high-amplitude genes. The bioluminescence rhythms satisfied the three criteria for circadian oscillations and were nullified by genetic disruption of the kai gene cluster. In heterocysts, in which photosystem II is turned off, the metabolic and redox states are different from those in vegetative cells, although these conditions are thought to be important for circadian entrainment and timekeeping processes. Here, we demonstrate that circadian regulation is active in heterocysts, as shown by the finding that heterocyst-specific genes, such as all1427 and hesAB, are expressed in a robust circadian fashion exclusively without combined nitrogen.

RpaB, another response regulator operating circadian clock-dependent transcriptional regulation in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.

The circadian clock of cyanobacteria is composed of KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC proteins, and the SasA-RpaA two-component system has been implicated in the regulation of one of the output pathways of the clock. In this study, we show that another response regulator that is essential for viability, the RpaA paralog, RpaB, plays a central role in the transcriptional oscillation of clock-regulated genes. In vivo and in vitro analyses revealed that RpaB and not RpaA could specifically bind to the kaiBC promoter, possibly repressing transcription during subjective night. This suggested that binding may be terminated by RpaA to activate gene transcription during subjective day. Moreover, we found that rpoD6 and sigF2, which encode group-2 and group-3 σ factors for RNA polymerase, respectively, were also targets of the RpaAB system, suggesting that a specific group of σ factors can propagate genome-wide transcriptional oscillation. Our findings thus reveal a novel mechanism for a circadian output pathway that is mediated by two paralogous response regulators.

Circadian transcriptional regulation by the posttranslational oscillator without de novo clock gene expression in Synechococcus.

Circadian rhythms are a fundamental property of most organisms, from cyanobacteria to humans. In the unicellular obligately photoautotrophic cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, essentially all promoter activities are controlled by the KaiABC-based clock under continuous light conditions. When Synechococcus cells are transferred from the light to continuous dark (DD) conditions, the expression of most genes, including the clock genes kaiA and kaiBC, is rapidly down-regulated, whereas the KaiC phosphorylation cycle persists. Therefore, we speculated that the posttranslational oscillator might not drive the transcriptional circadian output without de novo expression of the kai genes. Here we show that the cyanobacterial clock regulates the transcriptional output even in the dark. The expression of a subset of genes in the genomes of cells grown in the dark was dramatically affected by kaiABC nullification, and the magnitude of dark induction was dependent on the time at which the cells were transferred from the light to the dark. Moreover, under DD conditions, the expression of some dark-induced gene transcripts exhibited temperature-compensated damped oscillations, which were nullified in kaiABC-null strains and were affected by a kaiC period mutation. These results indicate that the Kai protein-based posttranslational oscillator can drive the circadian transcriptional output even without the de novo expression of the clock genes.

Cyanobacterial cell lineage analysis of the spatiotemporal hetR expression profile during heterocyst pattern formation in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120.

Diazotrophic heterocyst formation in the filamentous cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, is one of the simplest pattern formations known to occur in cell differentiation. Most previous studies on heterocyst patterning were based on statistical analysis using cells collected or observed at different times from a liquid culture, which would mask stochastic fluctuations affecting the process of pattern formation dynamics in a single bacterial filament. In order to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of heterocyst formation at the single filament level, here we developed a culture system to monitor simultaneously bacterial development, gene expression, and phycobilisome fluorescence. We also developed micro-liquid chamber arrays to analyze multiple Anabaena filaments at the same time. Cell lineage analyses demonstrated that the initial distributions of hetR::gfp and phycobilisome fluorescence signals at nitrogen step-down were not correlated with the resulting distribution of developed heterocysts. Time-lapse observations also revealed a dynamic hetR expression profile at the single-filament level, including transient upregulation accompanying cell division, which did not always lead to heterocyst development. In addition, some cells differentiated into heterocysts without cell division after nitrogen step-down, suggesting that cell division in the mother cells is not an essential requirement for heterocyst differentiation.

Cyanobacterial daily life with Kai-based circadian and diurnal genome-wide transcriptional control in Synechococcus elongatus.

In the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, essentially all promoter activities are under the control of the circadian clock under continuous light (LL) conditions. Here, we used high-density oligonucleotide arrays to explore comprehensive profiles of genome-wide Synechococcus gene expression in wild-type, kaiABC-null, and kaiC-overexpressor strains under LL and continuous dark (DD) conditions. In the wild-type strains, >30% of transcripts oscillated significantly in a circadian fashion, peaking at subjective dawn and dusk. Such circadian control was severely attenuated in kaiABC-null strains. Although it has been proposed that KaiC globally represses gene expression, our analysis revealed that dawn-expressed genes were up-regulated by kaiC-overexpression so that the clock was arrested at subjective dawn. Transfer of cells to DD conditions from LL immediately suppressed expression of most of the genes, while the clock kept even time in the absence of transcriptional feedback. Thus, the Synechococcus genome seems to be primarily regulated by light/dark cycles and is dramatically modified by the protein-based circadian oscillator.

An attempt to reveal a role of a transcription/translation feedback loop in the cyanobacterial KaiC protein-based circadian system by using a semi-synthetic method.

The use of synthetic biology to design artificial gene circuits is an important approach for understanding the principles underlying the complicated dynamic behaviours of biomolecular networks, such as genetic switching and biological rhythms. The synthetic approach is also useful in systems biology in that it can be used to create artificial bypasses for processes related to cellular phenomena of interest for their easier analysis. To validate the role of transcription feedback in the cyanobacterial circadian system, we propose an experimental design for a 'semi-synthetic' approach that involves transplantation of the kaiABC genes into Escherichia coli and the construction of chimeric transcriptional outputs. The design principle and preliminary results are discussed.

Proteins found in a CikA interaction assay link the circadian clock, metabolism, and cell division in Synechococcus elongatus.

Diverse organisms time their cellular activities to occur at distinct phases of Earth's solar day, not through the direct regulation of these processes by light and darkness but rather through the use of an internal biological (circadian) clock that is synchronized with the external cycle. Input pathways serve as mechanisms to transduce external cues to a circadian oscillator to maintain synchrony between this internal oscillation and the environment. The circadian input pathway in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 requires the kinase CikA. A cikA null mutant exhibits a short circadian period, the inability to reset its clock in response to pulses of darkness, and a defect in cell division. Although CikA is copurified with the Kai proteins that constitute the circadian central oscillator, no direct interaction between CikA and either KaiA, KaiB, or KaiC has been demonstrated. Here, we identify four proteins that may help connect CikA with the oscillator. Phenotypic analyses of null and overexpression alleles demonstrate that these proteins are involved in at least one of the functions--circadian period regulation, phase resetting, and cell division--attributed to CikA. Predictions based on sequence similarity suggest that these proteins function through protein phosphorylation, iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis, and redox regulation. Collectively, these results suggest a model for circadian input that incorporates proteins that link the circadian clock, metabolism, and cell division.

Induction of a group 2 sigma factor, RPOD3, by high light and the underlying mechanism in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.

Among the sigma70 family bacterial sigma factors, group 2 sigma factors have similar promoter recognition specificity to group 1 (principal) sigma factors and express and function under specific environmental and physiological conditions. In general, the cyanobacterial genome encodes more than four group 2 sigma factors, and the unicellular Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 (Synechococcus) has five group 2 sigma factors (RpoD2-6). In this study, we analyzed expression of group 2 sigma factors of Synechococcus at both mRNA and protein levels, and we showed that the rpoD3 expression was activated only by high light (1,500 micromol photons m(-2) s(-1)) among the various stress conditions examined. After high light shift, rpoD3 mRNA accumulated transiently within the first 5 min and diminished subsequently, whereas RpoD3 protein increased gradually during the first several hours. We also found that the rpoD3 deletion mutant rapidly lost viability under the same conditions. Analysis of the rpoD3 promoter structure revealed the presence of an HLR1 (high light-responsive element 1) sequence, which was suggested to be responsible for the high light-induced transcription under the control of the NblS (histidine kinase)-RpaB (response regulator) two-component system (Kappell, A. D., and van Waasbergen, L. G. (2007) Arch. Microbiol. 187, 337-342), at +6 to +23 with respect to the transcriptional start site. Here we demonstrated that recombinant RpaB protein specifically bound to HLR1 of the rpoD3 and hliA genes in vitro, and overexpression of a truncated RpaB variant harboring only the phosphoreceiver domain derepressed the transcription in vivo. Thus, we have concluded that phosphorylated RpaB are repressing the rpoD3 and hliA transcription under normal growth conditions, and the RpaB dephosphorylation induced by high light stress results in transcriptional derepression.