Degradation of phycobilisomes in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803: evidence for essential formation of an NblA1/NblA2 heterodimer and its codegradation by A Clp protease complex.

When cyanobacteria acclimate to nitrogen deficiency, they degrade their large (3-5-MDa), light-harvesting complexes, the phycobilisomes. This massive, yet specific, intracellular degradation of the pigmented phycobiliproteins causes a color change of cyanobacterial cultures from blue-green to yellow-green, a process referred to as chlorosis or bleaching. Phycobilisome degradation is induced by expression of the nblA gene, which encodes a protein of ~7 kDa. NblA most likely acts as an adaptor protein that guides a Clp protease to the phycobiliproteins, thereby initiating the degradation process. Most cyanobacteria and red algae possess just one nblA-homologous gene. As an exception, the widely used "model organism" Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 expresses two such genes, nblA16803 and nblA26803, both of whose products are required for phycobilisome degradation. Here, we demonstrate that the two NblA proteins heterodimerize in vitro and in vivo using pull-down assays and a Förster energy-transfer approach, respectively. We further show that the NblA proteins form a ternary complex with ClpC (the HSP100 chaperone partner of Clp proteases) and phycobiliproteins in vitro. This complex is susceptible to ATP-dependent degradation by a Clp protease, a finding that supports a proposed mechanism of the degradation process. Expression of the single nblA gene encoded by the genome of the N2-fixing, filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC7120 in the nblA1/nblA2 mutant of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 induced phycobilisome degradation, suggesting that the function of the NblA heterodimer of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 is combined in the homodimeric protein of Nostoc sp. PCC7120.

Identification of the light-independent phosphoserine pathway as an additional source of serine in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

L-serine is one of the proteinogenic amino acids and participates in several essential processes in all organisms. In plants, the light-dependent photorespiratory and the light-independent phosphoserine pathways contribute to serine biosynthesis. In cyanobacteria, the light-dependent photorespiratory pathway for serine synthesis is well characterized, but the phosphoserine pathway has not been identified. Here, we investigated three candidate genes for enzymes of the phosphoserine pathway in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Only the gene for the D-3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase is correctly annotated in the genome database, whereas the 3-phosphoserine transaminase and 3-phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP) proteins are incorrectly annotated and were identified here. All enzymes were obtained as recombinant proteins and showed the activities necessary to catalyse the three-step phosphoserine pathway. The genes coding for the phosphoserine pathway were found in most cyanobacterial genomes listed in CyanoBase. The pathway seems to be essential for cyanobacteria, because it was impossible to mutate the gene coding for PSP in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 or in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. A model approach indicates a 30-60% contribution of the phosphoserine pathway to the overall serine pool. Hence, this study verified that cyanobacteria, similar to plants, use the phosphoserine pathway in addition to photorespiration for serine biosynthesis.