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The heat shock response in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803 and regulation of gene expression by HrcA and SigB

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Abstract

We report on the genome-wide response, based on DNA microarrays, of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 wild type and ΔsigB to a 15 min heat shock. Approximately 9% of the genes in wild type and ΔsigB were significantly regulated (P < 0.001) following this treatment, with chaperones induced the most. The absence of sigB had no dramatic effect on specific genes induced by heat shock, but did affect the level of transcription of the chaperones. In addition, sigE was induced in ΔsigB. Comparison of global gene expression of the wild type and the hrcA mutant at 30°C enabled us to examine the HrcA regulon, which included groESL and groEL2. Several genes belonging to specific functional groups (e.g., pilus biogenesis/assembly and phototaxis, biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids, murien sacculus and peptidoglycan, surface polysaccharides, and the Sec pathway) were differentially regulated following heat shock. We used results from knock-out mutants in sigB, sigD and sigE to construct a model of the network of group 2 sigma factor regulation upon each other. In this network, SigB represented the major node and SigE a secondary node. Overall, we determined that transcription of the heat-shock genes are regulated to various degrees by SigB, SigE and HrcA.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Lauren McIntyre and Lisa Bono (both of Purdue University) for developing the ANOVA model and statistical analysis and helping us learn how to use it, respectively. The project was supported by DOE grant DE-FG02-99ER20342 from the Department of Energy.

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  1. Abhay K. Singh

    Present address: Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

  2. Hong Li

    Present address: UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 1392 Lilly Hall of Life Sciences, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Abhay K. Singh, Tina C. Summerfield, Hong Li & Louis A. Sherman

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  1. Abhay K. Singh
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Correspondence to Louis A. Sherman.

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Singh, A.K., Summerfield, T.C., Li, H. et al. The heat shock response in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803 and regulation of gene expression by HrcA and SigB. Arch Microbiol 186, 273–286 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-006-0138-0

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