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Flux balance analysis of cyanobacteria reveals selective use of photosynthetic electron transport components under different spectral light conditions

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Abstract

Cyanobacteria acclimate and adapt to changing light conditions by controlling the energy transfer between photosystem I (PSI) and II (PSII) and pigment composition. Photosynthesis is driven by balancing the excitation between PSI and PSII. To predict the detailed electron transfer flux of cyanobacteria, we refined the photosynthesis-related reactions in our previously reconstructed genome-scale model. Two photosynthetic bacteria, Arthrospira and Synechocystis, were used as models. They were grown under various spectral light conditions and flux balance analysis (FBA) was performed using photon uptake fluxes into PSI and PSII, which were converted from each light spectrum by considering the photoacclimation of pigments and the distribution ratio of phycobilisome to PSI and PSII. In Arthrospira, the FBA was verified with experimental data using six types of light-emitting diodes (White, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red1, and Red2). FBA predicted the cell growth of Synechocystis for the LEDs, excepting Red2. In an FBA simulation, cells used respiratory terminal oxidases and two NADH dehydrogenases (NDH-1 and NDH-2) to balance the PSI and PSII excitations depending on the light conditions. FBA simulation with our refined model functionally implicated NDH-1 and NDH-2 as a component of cyclic electron transport in the varied light environments.

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Abbreviations

ARTO:

Alternative respiratory oxidase

Car:

Carotenoid

CET:

Cyclic electron transport

Chl:

Chlorophyll

Cox:

aa3-type cytochrome c oxidase complex

Cyd:

Cytochrome bd-quinol oxidase complex

cyt:

b6f Cytochrome b6f complex

FBA:

Flux balance analysis

Fd:

Ferredoxin

FNR ferredoxin:

NADP+ reductase

LED:

Light-emitting diodes

LET:

Linear electron transport

NDH-1:

Type I NADH dehydrogenase

NDH-2:

Type II NADH dehydrogenase

PBS:

Phycobilisome

Pc:

Plastocyanin

PQ:

Plastoquinone

PSI:

Photosystem I

PSII:

Photosystem II

RTO:

Respiratory terminal oxidase

SDH:

Succinate dehydrogenase

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant Nos. 16H06552 and 16H06559).

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  1. Department of Bioinformatic Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Masakazu Toyoshima, Yoshihiro Toya & Hiroshi Shimizu

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  1. Masakazu Toyoshima
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  2. Yoshihiro Toya
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Shimizu.

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Toyoshima, M., Toya, Y. & Shimizu, H. Flux balance analysis of cyanobacteria reveals selective use of photosynthetic electron transport components under different spectral light conditions. Photosynth Res 143, 31–43 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-019-00678-x

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