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Identification of bidirectional hydrogenase genes and their co-transcription in unicellular halotolerant cyanobacterium Aphanothece halophytica

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Abstract

The halotolerant cyanobacterium Aphanothece halophytica has been shown to produce H2 via dark fermentation of accumulated glycogen under anoxic condition. One set of hox genes encoding a bidirectional hydrogenase is present in A. halophytica. In this study, the nucleotide sequence and the transcriptional analysis of hox genes in A. halophytica were investigated. The results revealed that A. halophytica contained five structural genes, hoxE, hoxF, hoxU, hoxY, and hoxH, without an insertion of other open reading frames (ORFs). The conserved cysteine motifs of iron-sulfur clusters involved in an electron transfer were found in all Hox subunits. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of hox genes in A. halophytica showed the highest identity and similarity to those of Halothece sp. PCC 7418. By reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, hox genes in A. halophytica were co-transcribed as a single operon. Under nitrogen-deprived condition, the transcripts of hoxH, glgB, coxA, ndhB, and psaA were upregulated whereas those of glgP and narB were downregulated which resulted in an increase of H2 production, H2ase activity, glycogen content, and dark respiration rate.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by research grant from the Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. A. Incharoensakdi thanks the Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund of Chulalongkorn University, for the research grant under Frontier Research Energy Cluster.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioenergy Research Unit, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, 10520, Thailand

    Saranya Phunpruch

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, 10520, Thailand

    Saranya Phunpruch & Samart Taikhao

  3. Laboratory of Cyanobacterial Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

    Aran Incharoensakdi

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  1. Saranya Phunpruch
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  2. Samart Taikhao
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Correspondence to Aran Incharoensakdi.

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Phunpruch, S., Taikhao, S. & Incharoensakdi, A. Identification of bidirectional hydrogenase genes and their co-transcription in unicellular halotolerant cyanobacterium Aphanothece halophytica . J Appl Phycol 28, 967–978 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-015-0664-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-015-0664-8

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