Selection and Ultrastructural Observation of a High-CO2-requiring Mutant of Cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC7942

Tian Fu Wu, Yong Ding Liu, Li Rong Song

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

A high-CO2-requiring mutant of Synechococcus sp. PCC7942 has been isolated after chemical mutagenesis of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS). It was able to grow at 4% CO2, but not under ambient CO2. The initial screening of the mutant showed that the genetic reversion rate was about 10-7 and death occurred 2 -3 days after being transferred from 4% CO2 to the ambient air. Its photosynthetic dependence on external dissolved inorganic carbon was higher than that of the wild type cells, but its carbonic anhydrase activity was comparatively low. In the ultrastructural level, various types of aberrant carboxysomes appeared in the mutant cells: rod-shaped carboxysomes, irregular carboxysomes and the "empty-inclusion carboxysomes" with increasing number of glycogen granules surrounding the thylakoids. All these alterations indicated that the mutant was defective in utilizing the external CO2. The induction of carboxysomes by lower levels of CO2 and the biogenesis of carboxysomes are herein discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)116-121
Number of pages6
JournalActa Botanica Sinica
Volume42
Issue number2
StatePublished - Feb 2000

Keywords

  • Carboxysomes
  • Cyanobacteria
  • High-CO-requiring mutant
  • Synechococcus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • Plant Science

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