Light Quantity Affects the Regulation of Cell Shape in Fremyella diplosiphon

Chromatic acclimation in cyanobacteria renders robust photosynthesis and fitness in dynamic light environment: Recent advances and future perspectives

Cyanobacteria are photoautotrophic organisms that use light and water as a source of energy and electrons, respectively, to fix atmospheric carbon dioxide and release oxygen as a by-product during photosynthesis. However, photosynthesis and fitness of organisms are challenged by seasonal and diurnal fluctuations in light environments. Also, the distribution of cyanobacteria in a water column is subject to changes in the light regime. The quality and quantity of light change significantly in low and bright light environments that either limit photochemistry or result in photoinhibition due to an excess amount of light reaching reaction centers. Therefore, cyanobacteria have to adjust their light-harvesting machinery and cell morphology for the optimal harvesting of light. This adjustment of light-harvesting involves remodeling of the light-harvesting complex called phycobilisome or incorporation of chlorophyll molecules such as chlorophyll d and f into their light-harvesting machinery. Thus, photoacclimation responses of cyanobacteria at the level of pigment composition and cell morphology maximize their photosynthetic ability and fitness under a dynamic light environment. Cyanobacteria exhibit different types of photoacclimation responses that are commonly known as chromatic acclimation (CA). In this work, we discuss different types of CA reported in cyanobacteria and present a molecular mechanism of well-known type 3 CA where phycoerythrin and phycocyanin of phycobilisome changes according to light signals. We also include other aspects of type 3 CA that have been recently studied at a molecular level and highlight the importance of morphogenes, cytoskeleton, and carboxysome proteins. In summary, CA gives a unique competitive benefit to cyanobacteria by increasing their resource utilization ability and fitness.

Responding to light signals: a comprehensive update on photomorphogenesis in cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are ancestors of chloroplast and perform oxygen-evolving photosynthesis similar to higher plants and algae. However, an obligatory requirement of photons for their growth results in the exposure of cyanobacteria to varying light conditions. Therefore, the light environment could act as a signal to drive the developmental processes, in addition to photosynthesis, in cyanobacteria. These Gram-negative prokaryotes exhibit characteristic light-dependent developmental processes that maximize their fitness and resource utilization. The development occurring in response to radiance (photomorphogenesis) involves fine-tuning cellular physiology, morphology and metabolism. The best-studied example of cyanobacterial photomorphogenesis is chromatic acclimation (CA), which allows a selected number of cyanobacteria to tailor their light-harvesting antenna called phycobilisome (PBS). The tailoring of PBS under existing wavelengths and abundance of light gives an advantage to cyanobacteria over another photoautotroph. In this work, we will provide a comprehensive update on light-sensing, molecular signaling and signal cascades found in cyanobacteria. We also include recent developments made in other aspects of CA, such as mechanistic insights into changes in the size and shape of cells, filaments and carboxysomes.

Biocrude Production Using a Novel Cyanobacterium: Pilot-Scale Cultivation and Lipid Extraction via Hydrothermal Liquefaction

The use of renewable energy to reduce fossil fuel consumption is a key strategy to mitigate pollution and climate change, resulting in the growing demand for new sources. Fast-growing proprietary cyanobacterial strains of Fremyella diplosiphon with an average life cycle of 7-10 days, and a proven capacity to generate lipids for biofuel production are currently being studied. In this study, we investigated the growth and photosynthetic pigmentation of a cyanobacterial strain (SF33) in both greenhouse and outdoor bioreactors, and produced biocrude via hydrothermal liquefaction. The cultivation of F. diplosiphon did not significantly differ under suboptimal conditions (p < 0.05), including in outdoor bioreactors with growth differences of less than 0.04 (p = 0.035) among various batches. An analysis of the biocrude's components revealed the presence of fatty acid biodiesel precursors such as palmitic acid and behenic acid, and alkanes such as hexadecane and heptadecane, used as biofuel additives. In addition, the quantification of value-added photosynthetic pigments revealed chlorophyll a and phycocyanin concentrations of 0.0011 ± 5.83 × 10^-5 μg/μL and 7.051 ± 0.067 μg/μg chlorophyll a. Our results suggest the potential of F. diplosiphon as a robust species that can grow at varying temperatures ranging from 13 °C to 32 °C, while producing compounds for applications ranging from biofuel to nutritional supplements. The outcomes of this study pave the way for production-level scale-up and processing of F. diplosiphon-derived biofuels and marketable bioproducts. Fuel produced using this technology will be eco-friendly and cost-effective, and will make full use of the geographical location of regions with access to brackish waters.

Chromatic Acclimation in Cyanobacteria: A Diverse and Widespread Process for Optimizing Photosynthesis

Chromatic acclimation (CA) encompasses a diverse set of molecular processes that involve the ability of cyanobacterial cells to sense ambient light colors and use this information to optimize photosynthetic light harvesting. The six known types of CA, which we propose naming CA1 through CA6, use a range of molecular mechanisms that likely evolved independently in distantly related lineages of the Cyanobacteria phylum. Together, these processes sense and respond to the majority of the photosynthetically relevant solar spectrum, suggesting that CA provides fitness advantages across a broad range of light color niches. The recent discoveries of several new CA types suggest that additional CA systems involving additional light colors and molecular mechanisms will be revealed in coming years. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of the currently known types of CA and summarize the molecular details that underpin CA regulation.

Use Microfluidic Chips to Study the Phototaxis of Lung Cancer Cells

Cell migration is an important process involved in wound healing, tissue development, and so on. Many studies have been conducted to explore how certain chemicals and electric fields induce cell movements in specific directions, which are phenomena termed chemotaxis and electrotaxis, respectively. However, phototaxis, the directional migration of cells or organisms toward or away from light, is rarely investigated due to the difficulty of generating a precise and controllable light gradient. In this study, we designed and fabricated a microfluidic chip for simultaneously culturing cells and generating a blue light gradient for guiding cell migration. A concentration gradient was first established inside this chip, and by illuminating it with a blue light-emitting diode (LED), a blue light gradient was generated underneath. Cell migration in response to this light stimulus was observed. It was found that lung cancer cells migrated to the dark side of the gradient, and the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was proportional to the intensity of the blue light.

The Molecular Basis of Noncanonical Bacterial Morphology

Bacteria come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The true picture of bacterial morphological diversity is likely skewed due to an experimental focus on pathogens and industrially relevant organisms. Indeed, most of the work elucidating the genes and molecular processes involved in maintaining bacterial morphology has been limited to rod- or coccal-shaped model systems. The mechanisms of shape evolution, the molecular processes underlying diverse shapes and growth modes, and how individual cells can dynamically modulate their shape are just beginning to be revealed. Here we discuss recent work aimed at advancing our knowledge of shape diversity and uncovering the molecular basis for shape generation in noncanonical and morphologically complex bacteria.

Mechanisms and fitness implications of photomorphogenesis during chromatic acclimation in cyanobacteria

Photosynthetic organisms absorb photons and convert light energy to chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthetic efficiency is tuned in response to the availability of light, carbon dioxide and nutrients to promote maximal levels of carbon fixation, while simultaneously limiting the potential for light-associated damage or phototoxicity. Given the central dependence on light for energy production, photosynthetic organisms possess abilities to tune their growth, development and metabolism to external light cues in the process of photomorphogenesis. Photosynthetic organisms perceive light intensity and distinct wavelengths or colors of light to promote organismal acclimation. Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic prokaryotes that exhibit abilities to alter specific aspects of growth, including photosynthetic pigment composition and morphology, in responses to changes in available wavelengths and intensity of light. This form of photomorphogenesis is known as chromatic acclimation and has been widely studied. Recent insights into the photosensory photoreceptors found in cyanobacteria and developments in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms initiated by light sensing to affect the changes characteristic of chromatic acclimation are discussed. I consider cyanobacterial responses to light, the broad diversity of photoreceptors encoded by these organisms, specific mechanisms of photomorphogenesis, and associated fitness implications in chromatically acclimating cyanobacteria.

Interrelated modules in cyanobacterial photosynthesis: the carbon-concentrating mechanism, photorespiration, and light perception

Here we consider the cyanobacterial carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) and photorespiration in the context of the regulation of light harvesting, using a conceptual framework borrowed from engineering: modularity. Broadly speaking, biological 'modules' are semi-autonomous functional units such as protein domains, operons, metabolic pathways, and (sub)cellular compartments. They are increasingly recognized as units of both evolution and engineering. Modules may be connected by metabolites, such as NADPH, ATP, and 2PG. While the Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle and photorespiratory salvage pathways can be considered as metabolic modules, the carboxysome, the core of the cyanobacterial CCM, is both a structural and a metabolic module. In photosynthetic organisms, which use light cues to adapt to the external environment and which tune the photosystems to provide the ATP and reducing power for carbon fixation, light-regulated modules are critical. The primary enzyme of carbon fixation, RuBisCO, uses CO2 as a substrate, which is accumulated via the CCM. However RuBisCO also has a secondary reaction in which it utilizes O2, a by-product of the photochemical modules, which leads to photorespiration. A complete understanding of the interplay among CCM and photorespiration is predicated on uncovering their connections to the light reactions and the regulatory factors and pathways that tune these modules to external cues. We probe this connection by investigating light inputs into the CCM and photorespiratory pathways in the chromatically acclimating cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon.

Regulation of BolA abundance mediates morphogenesis in Fremyella diplosiphon

Filamentous cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon is known to alter its pigmentation and morphology during complementary chromatic acclimation (CCA) to efficiently harvest available radiant energy for photosynthesis. F. diplosiphon cells are rectangular and filaments are longer under green light (GL), whereas smaller, spherical cells and short filaments are prevalent under red light (RL). Light regulation of bolA morphogene expression is correlated with photoregulation of cellular morphology in F. diplosiphon. Here, we investigate a role for quantitative regulation of cellular BolA protein levels in morphology determination. Overexpression of bolA in WT was associated with induction of RL-characteristic spherical morphology even when cultures were grown under GL. Overexpression of bolA in a ΔrcaE background, which lacks cyanobacteriochrome photosensor RcaE and accumulates lower levels of BolA than WT, partially reverted the cellular morphology of the strain to a WT-like state. Overexpression of BolA in WT and ΔrcaE backgrounds was associated with decreased cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and an increase in filament length under both GL and RL. Morphological defects and high ROS levels commonly observed in ΔrcaE could, thus, be in part due to low accumulation of BolA. Together, these findings support an emerging model for RcaE-dependent photoregulation of BolA in controlling the cellular morphology of F. diplosiphon during CCA.

Regulation of biofilm formation and cellular buoyancy through modulating intracellular cyclic di-GMP levels in engineered cyanobacteria

The second messenger cyclic dimeric (3'→5') GMP (cyclic di-GMP or c-di-GMP) has been implicated in the transition between motile and sessile lifestyles in bacteria. In this study, we demonstrate that biofilm formation, cellular aggregation or flocculation, and cellular buoyancy are under the control of c-di-GMP in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (Synechocystis) and Fremyella diplosiphon. Synechocystis is a unicellular cyanobacterium and displays lower levels of c-di-GMP; F. diplosiphon is filamentous and displays higher intracellular c-di-GMP levels. We transformed Synechocystis and F. diplosiphon with a plasmid for constitutive expression of genes encoding diguanylate cylase (DGC) and phosphodiesterase (PDE) proteins from Vibrio cholerae or Escherichia coli, respectively. These engineered strains allowed us to modulate intracellular c-di-GMP levels. Biofilm formation and cellular deposition were induced in the DGC-expressing Synechocystis strain which exhibited high intracellular levels of c-di-GMP; whereas strains expressing PDE in Synechocystis and F. diplosiphon to drive low intracellular levels of c-di-GMP exhibited enhanced cellular buoyancy. In addition, the PDE-expressing F. diplosiphon strain showed elevated chlorophyll levels. These results imply roles for coordinating c-di-GMP homeostasis in regulating native cyanobacterial phenotypes. Engineering exogenous DGC or PDE proteins to regulate intracellular c-di-GMP levels represents an effective tool for uncovering cryptic phenotypes or modulating phenotypes in cyanobacteria for practical applications in biotechnology applicable in photobioreactors and in green biotechnologies, such as energy-efficient harvesting of cellular biomass or the treatment of metal-containing wastewaters.

Light-dependent governance of cell shape dimensions in cyanobacteria

The regulation of cellular dimension is important for the function and survival of cells. Cellular dimensions, such as size and shape, are regulated throughout the life cycle of bacteria and can be adapted in response to environmental changes to fine-tune cellular fitness. Cell size and shape are generally coordinated with cell growth and division. Cytoskeletal regulation of cell shape and cell wall biosynthesis and/or deposition occurs in a range of organisms. Photosynthetic organisms, such as cyanobacteria, particularly exhibit light-dependent regulation of morphogenes and generation of reactive oxygen species and other signals that can impact cellular dimensions. Environmental signals initiate adjustments of cellular dimensions, which may be vitally important for optimizing resource acquisition and utilization or for coupling the cellular dimensions with the regulation of subcellular organization to maintain optimal metabolism. Although the involvement of cytoskeletal components in the regulation of cell shape is widely accepted, the signaling factors that regulate cytoskeletal and other distinct components involved in cell shape control, particularly in response to changes in external light cues, remain to be fully elucidated. In this review, factors impacting the inter-coordination of growth and division, the relationship between the regulation of cellular dimensions and central carbon metabolism, and consideration of the effects of specific environment signals, primarily light, on cell dimensions in cyanobacteria will be discussed. Current knowledge about the molecular bases of the light-dependent regulation of cellular dimensions and cell shape in cyanobacteria will be highlighted.

The Regulation of Light Sensing and Light-Harvesting Impacts the Use of Cyanobacteria as Biotechnology Platforms

Light is harvested in cyanobacteria by chlorophyll-containing photosystems embedded in the thylakoid membranes and phycobilisomes (PBSs), photosystem-associated light-harvesting antennae. Light absorbed by the PBSs and photosystems can be converted to chemical energy through photosynthesis. Photosynthetically fixed carbon pools, which are constrained by photosynthetic light capture versus the dissipation of excess light absorbed, determine the available organismal energy budget. The molecular bases of the environmental regulation of photosynthesis, photoprotection, and photomorphogenesis are still being elucidated in cyanobacteria. Thus, the potential impacts of these phenomena on the efficacy of developing cyanobacteria as robust biotechnological platforms require additional attention. Current advances and persisting needs for developing cyanobacterial production platforms that are related to light sensing and harvesting include the development of tools to balance the utilization of absorbed photons for conversion to chemical energy and biomass versus light dissipation in photoprotective mechanisms. Such tools can be used to direct energy to more effectively support the production of desired bioproducts from sunlight.

Morphogenes bolA and mreB mediate the photoregulation of cellular morphology during complementary chromatic acclimation in Fremyella diplosiphon

Photoregulation of pigmentation during complementary chromatic acclimation (CCA) is well studied in Fremyella diplosiphon; however, mechanistic insights into the CCA-associated morphological changes are still emerging. F. diplosiphon cells are rectangular under green light (GL), whereas cells are smaller and spherical under red light (RL). Here, we investigate the role of morphogenes bolA and mreB during CCA using gene expression and gene function analyses. The F. diplosiphon bolA gene is essential as its complete removal from the genome was unsuccessful. Depletion of bolA resulted in slow growth, morphological defects and the accumulation of high levels of reactive oxygen species in a partially segregated ΔbolA strain. Higher expression of bolA was observed under RL and was correlated with lower expression of mreB and mreC genes in wild type. In a ΔrcaE strain that lacks the red-/green-responsive RcaE photoreceptor, the expression of bolA and mre genes was altered under both RL and GL. Observed gene expression relationships suggest that mreB and mreC expression is controlled by RcaE-dependent photoregulation of bolA expression. Expression of F. diplosiphon bolA and mreB homologues in Escherichia coli demonstrated functional conservation of the encoded proteins. Together, these studies establish roles for bolA and mreB in RcaE-dependent regulation of cellular morphology.

Temporal dynamics of changes in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and cellular morphology are coordinated during complementary chromatic acclimation in Fremyella diplosiphon

Fremyella diplosiphon alters the phycobiliprotein composition of its light-harvesting complexes, i.e., phycobilisomes, and its cellular morphology in response to changes in the prevalent wavelengths of light in the external environment in a phenomenon known as complementary chromatic acclimation (CCA). The organism primarily responds to red light (RL) and green light (GL) during CCA to maximize light absorption for supporting optimal photosynthetic efficiency. Recently, we found that RL-characteristic spherical cell morphology is associated with higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) compared to growth under GL where lower ROS levels and rectangular cell shape are observed. The RL-dependent association of increased ROS levels with cellular morphology was demonstrated by treating cells with a ROS-scavenging antioxidant which resulted in the observation of GL-characteristic rectangular morphology under RL. To gain additional insights into the involvement of ROS in impacting cellular morphology changes during CCA, we conducted experiments to study the temporal dynamics of changes in ROS levels and cellular morphology during transition to growth under RL or GL. Alterations in ROS levels and cell morphology were found to be correlated with each other at early stages of acclimation of low white light-grown cells to growth under high RL or cells transitioned between growth in RL and GL. These results provide further general evidence that significant RL-dependent increases in ROS levels are temporally correlated with changes in morphology toward spherical. Future studies will explore the light-dependent mechanisms by which ROS levels may be regulated and the direct impacts of ROS on the observed morphology changes.

Plastids of marine phytoplankton produce bioactive pigments and lipids

Phytoplankton is acknowledged to be a very diverse source of bioactive molecules. These compounds play physiological roles that allow cells to deal with changes of the environmental constrains. For example, the diversity of light harvesting pigments allows efficient photosynthesis at different depths in the seawater column. Identically, lipid composition of cell membranes can vary according to environmental factors. This, together with the heterogenous evolutionary origin of taxa, makes the chemical diversity of phytoplankton compounds much larger than in terrestrial plants. This contribution is dedicated to pigments and lipids synthesized within or from plastids/photosynthetic membranes. It starts with a short review of cyanobacteria and microalgae phylogeny. Then the bioactivity of pigments and lipids (anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, anti-cancer, anti-obesity, anti-allergic activities, and cardio- neuro-, hepato- and photoprotective effects), alone or in combination, is detailed. To increase the cellular production of bioactive compounds, specific culture conditions may be applied (e.g., high light intensity, nitrogen starvation). Regardless of the progress made in blue biotechnologies, the production of bioactive compounds is still limited. However, some examples of large scale production are given, and perspectives are suggested in the final section.

Distinct salt-dependent effects impair Fremyella diplosiphon pigmentation and cellular shape

Salt impairs cellular morphology and photosynthetic pigment accumulation in the cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon. Recent findings indicated that the impact of salt on cellular morphology was attributable to salt-associated effects on osmotic regulation, as the impact on morphology was reversible when cells were treated with an osmoticum in the presence of salt. The impact of salt on photosynthetic pigment accumulation was associated with ionic effects of salt on the cells, as pigment levels remained low when salt-treated cells were incubated together with an osmoticum or an antioxidant, the latter to mitigate the impact of a salt-associated accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Here, we provide evidence that the transcripts for genes encoding the phycobiliproteins are not reduced in the presence of salt. These results suggest that the negative impact of salt-mediated changes on pigment accumulation occurs post-transcriptionally. A greater understanding of the mechanisms which impact growth of strains such as F. diplosiphon, which harbor pigments that allow low-light and shade-tolerated growth, may facilitate the development or adaptation of such strains as useful for remediation of salt-impacted soils or biofuel production.