Picocyanobacteria containing a novel pigment gene cluster dominate the brackish water Baltic Sea.

Photoautotrophic picocyanobacteria harvest light via phycobilisomes (PBS) consisting of the pigments phycocyanin (PC) and phycoerythrin (PE), encoded by genes in conserved gene clusters. The presence and arrangement of these gene clusters give picocyanobacteria characteristic light absorption properties and allow the colonization of specific ecological niches. To date, a full understanding of the evolution and distribution of the PBS gene cluster in picocyanobacteria has been hampered by the scarcity of genome sequences from fresh- and brackish water-adapted strains. To remediate this, we analysed genomes assembled from metagenomic samples collected along a natural salinity gradient, and over the course of a growth season, in the Baltic Sea. We found that while PBS gene clusters in picocyanobacteria sampled in marine habitats were highly similar to known references, brackish-adapted genotypes harboured a novel type not seen in previously sequenced genomes. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the novel gene cluster belonged to a clade of uncultivated picocyanobacteria that dominate the brackish Baltic Sea throughout the summer season, but are uncommon in other examined aquatic ecosystems. Further, our data suggest that the PE genes were lost in the ancestor of PC-containing coastal picocyanobacteria and that multiple horizontal gene transfer events have re-introduced PE genes into brackish-adapted strains, including the novel clade discovered here.

AplA, a member of a new class of phycobiliproteins lacking a traditional role in photosynthetic light harvesting.

All known phycobiliproteins have light-harvesting roles during photosynthesis and are found in water-soluble phycobilisomes, the light-harvesting complexes of cyanobacteria, cyanelles, and red algae. Phycobiliproteins are chromophore-bearing proteins that exist as heterodimers of alpha and beta subunits, possess a number of highly conserved amino acid residues important for dimerization and chromophore binding, and are invariably 160 to 180 amino acids long. A new and unusual group of proteins that is most closely related to the allophycocyanin members of the phycobiliprotein superfamily has been identified. Each of these proteins, which have been named allophycocyanin-like (Apl) proteins, apparently contains a 28-amino-acid extension at its amino terminus relative to allophycocyanins. Apl family members possess the residues critical for chromophore interactions, but substitutions are present at positions implicated in maintaining the proper alpha-beta subunit interactions and tertiary structure of phycobiliproteins, suggesting that Apl proteins are able to bind chromophores but fail to adopt typical allophycocyanin conformations. AplA isolated from the cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon contained a covalently attached chromophore and, although present in the cell under a number of conditions, was not detected in phycobilisomes. Thus, Apl proteins are a new class of photoreceptors with a different cellular location and structure than any previously described members of the phycobiliprotein superfamily.