Project description:Cyanobacteria largely contribute to the biogeochemical carbon cycle fixing ~ 25% of the inorganic carbon on Earth. However, the carbon acquisition and assimilation mechanisms in Cyanobacteria are still underexplored regardless of being of great importance for shedding light on the origins of autotropism on Earth and providing new bioengineering tools for crop yield improvement. Here, we fully characterized these mechanisms from the polyextremophile cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis thermalis KOMAREK 1964/111 in comparison with the model cyanobacterial strain, Synechococcus sp. PCC6301. In particular, we analyzed the Rubisco kinetics along with the in vivo photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in response to external dissolved inorganic carbon, the effect of CO2 concentrating mechanism (CCM) inhibitors on net photosynthesis and the anatomical particularities of their carboxysomes when grown under either ambient air (0.04% CO2) or 2.5% CO2-enriched air. Our results show that Rubisco from C. thermalis possess the highest specificity factor and carboxylation efficiency ever reported for Cyanobacteria, which were accompanied by a highly effective CCM, concentrating CO2 around Rubisco more than 140-times the external CO2 levels, when grown under ambient CO2 conditions. Our findings provide new insights into the Rubisco kinetics of Cyanobacteria, suggesting that improved Sc/o values can still be compatible with a fast-catalyzing enzyme. The combination of Rubisco kinetics and CCM effectiveness in C. thermalis relative to other cyanobacterial species might indicate that the co-evolution between Rubisco and CCMs in Cyanobacteria is not as constrained as in other phylogenetic groups.
Project description:The cultivation of cyanobacteria by exploiting available in situ resources represents a possible way to supply food and oxygen to astronauts during long-term crewed missions on Mars. Here, we evaluated the possibility of cultivating the extremophile cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis thermalis CCALA 050 under operating conditions that should occur within a dome hosting a recently patented process to produce nutrients and oxygen on Mars. The medium adopted to cultivate this cyanobacterium, named Martian medium, was obtained using a mixture of regolith leachate and astronauts' urine simulants that would be available in situ resources whose exploitation could reduce the mission payload. The results demonstrated that C. thermalis can grow in such a medium. For producing high biomass, the best medium consisted of specific percentages (40%vol) of Martian medium and a standard medium (60%vol). Biomass produced in such a medium exhibits excellent antioxidant properties and contains significant amounts of pigments. Lipidomic analysis demonstrated that biomass contains strategic lipid classes able to help the astronauts facing the oxidative stress and inflammatory phenomena taking place on Mars. These characteristics suggest that this strain could serve as a valuable nutritional resource for astronauts.
Project description:Chroococcidiopsis thermalis is an extremophilic cyanobacterium that is adaptable to a widerange of environments including deserts, where it can maintain viability after desiccation. This species is also capable of photoautotrophic growth under far-red light (FRL, 750 nm) The proteomic comparison in this study, in conjunction with topographical imaging of thylakoid membranes by atomic force microscopy, supports earlier findings that FRL growth is accompanied by the synthesis of alternative photosynthesis-related proteins. Under white light (WL), a number of phycobilisome (PBS) and photosystem (PS) subunits were predominant at levels 2 - 14-fold greater compared to FRL growth. Two antenna family proteins were markedly more abundant under WL, with a fold-difference of approximately 80. While WL-associated proteins persisted at relatively low abundance under FRL, an exclusive set of PBS and PS subunit isoforms was expressed under FRL. These proteins were undetectable under WL, in many cases encoded in a discrete FRL-associated gene cluster. In line with the expected higher energy capture rate under WL, complexes associated with electron transport (eg. cytochrome b6f) and the ATP synthase were 1.2 – 3.4 times more abundant than under FRL.
Project description:RNAseq from Medicago truncatula early post germination (1 and 5mm radicle seeds) from dissected radicles and cotyledons with and without PEG treatment to identify genes induced during the reinduction of the desiccation tolerance at early germination. Dessication tolerant tissues were radicles from 1mm radicle seeds treated with PEG: R1P, and cotyledons from 1- and 5-mm radicle seeds treated or not with PEG: C1, C5, C1P, C5P and desiccation sensitive tissues were radicles from 1mm radicle seeds (R1) and 5mm radicle seeds (R5).