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Towards efficient hydrogen production: the impact of antenna size and external factors on electron transport dynamics in Synechocystis PCC 6803

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Abstract

Three Synechocystis PCC 6803 strains with different levels of phycobilisome antenna-deficiency have been investigated for their impact on photosynthetic electron transport and response to environmental factors (i.e. light-quality, -quantity and composition of growth media). Oxygen yield and P700 reduction kinetic measurements showed enhanced linear electron transport rates—especially under photoautotrophic conditions—with impaired antenna-size, starting from wild type (WT) (full antenna) over ΔapcE- (phycobilisomes functionally dissociated) and Olive (lacking phycocyanin) up to the PAL mutant (lacking the whole phycobilisome). In contrast to mixotrophic conditions (up to 80% contribution), cyclic electron transport plays only a minor role (below 10%) under photoautotrophic conditions for all the strains, while linear electron transport increased up to 5.5-fold from WT to PAL mutant. The minor contribution of the cyclic electron transport was proportionally increased with the linear one in the ΔapcE and Olive mutant, but was not altered in the PAL mutant, indicating that upregulation of the linear route does not have to be correlated with downregulation of the cyclic electron transport. Antenna-deficiency involves higher linear electron transport rates by tuning the PS2/PS1 ratio from 1:5 in WT up to 1:1 in the PAL mutant. While state transitions were observed only in the WT and Olive mutant, a further ~30% increase in the PS2/PS1 ratio was achieved in all the strains by long-term adaptation to far red light (720 nm). These results are discussed in the context of using these cells for future H2 production in direct combination with the photosynthetic electron transport and suggest both Olive and PAL as potential candidates for future manipulations toward this goal. In conclusion, the highest rates can be expected if mutants deficient in phycobilisome antennas are grown under photoautotrophic conditions in combination with uncoupling of electron transport and an illumination which excites preferably PS1.

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Abbreviations

APC:

Allophycocyanin

CCCP:

Carbonyl-cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone

Chl:

Chlorophyll

Cyt:

Cytochrome

DCBQ:

2,6-Dichloro-benzoquinone

DCMU:

3-(3′,4′-Dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea

FNR:

Ferredoxin:NADP+ oxidoreductase

H2-ase:

Hydrogenase

LCM :

ApcE, the 99 kDa phycobilisome core-membrane linker protein

MV:

Methyl viologen

P700 :

The primary electron donor of PS1

PBS:

Phycobilisome

PC:

Phycocyanin

PQ:

Plastoquinone

PS:

Photosystem

WT:

Wild type

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Acknowledgments

The financial supports by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, project “Bio-H2”), the EU/NEST project “Solar-H”, and the German Research Foundation (DFG, project C1 in SFB 480) are gratefully acknowledged. We thank Erdmut Thomas for excellent technical assistance, and Anna Sallai, Regina Oworah-Nkruma, and Daichi Takenaka for their help with the strains. The PAL mutant was a kind gift from Ghada Ajlani and Zoltán Gombos; fruitful discussion with the latter is also much appreciated.

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  1. Lehrstuhl für Biochemie der Pflanzen, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany

    Gábor Bernát, Nadine Waschewski & Matthias Rögner

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  1. Gábor Bernát
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  2. Nadine Waschewski
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  3. Matthias Rögner
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Correspondence to Gábor Bernát.

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Bernát, G., Waschewski, N. & Rögner, M. Towards efficient hydrogen production: the impact of antenna size and external factors on electron transport dynamics in Synechocystis PCC 6803. Photosynth Res 99, 205–216 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-008-9398-7

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