Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1991 Feb;3(2):191–201. doi: 10.1105/tpc.3.2.191

Hormogonium Differentiation in the Cyanobacterium Calothrix: A Photoregulated Developmental Process.

T Damerval 1, G Guglielmi 1, J Houmard 1, NT De Marsac 1
PMCID: PMC159991  PMID: 12324595

Abstract

Hormogonium differentiation is part of the developmental cycle in many heterocystous cyanobacteria. Hormogonia are involved in the dispersal and survival of the species in its natural habitat. The formation of these differentiated filaments has been shown to depend on several environmental conditions, including spectral light quality. We report here morphological and ultrastructural changes associated with the formation of hormogonia, as well as optimal light conditions required for their differentiation in the cyanobacterium Calothrix sp PCC 7601. The action spectrum for hormogonium differentiation is similar to that which triggers complementary chromatic adaptation because red and green radiation display antagonistic effects in both cases. However, these two photoregulated processes also show major differences. Transcription analyses of genes that are specifically expressed during hormogonium differentiation, as well as of genes encoding phycobiliproteins, suggest that two different photoregulatory pathways may exist in this cyanobacterium.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (2.0 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Capuano V., Mazel D., Tandeau de Marsac N., Houmard J. Complete nucleotide sequence of the red-light specific set of phycocyanin genes from the cyanobacterium Calothrix PCC 7601. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Feb 25;16(4):1626–1626. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.4.1626. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Casey J., Davidson N. Rates of formation and thermal stabilities of RNA:DNA and DNA:DNA duplexes at high concentrations of formamide. Nucleic Acids Res. 1977;4(5):1539–1552. doi: 10.1093/nar/4.5.1539. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Conley P. B., Lemaux P. G., Grossman A. R. Cyanobacterial light-harvesting complex subunits encoded in two red light-induced transcripts. Science. 1985 Nov 1;230(4725):550–553. doi: 10.1126/science.3931221. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Csiszàr K., Houmard J., Damerval T., Tandeau de Marsac N. Transcriptional analysis of the cyanobacterial gvpABC operon in differentiated cells: occurrence of an antisense RNA complementary to three overlapping transcripts. Gene. 1987;60(1):29–37. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(87)90210-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Damerval T., Houmard J., Guglielmi G., Csiszar K., Tandeau de Marsac N. A developmentally regulated gvpABC operon is involved in the formation of gas vesicles in the cyanobacterium Calothrix 7601. Gene. 1987;54(1):83–92. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(87)90350-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Doi R. H., Wang L. F. Multiple procaryotic ribonucleic acid polymerase sigma factors. Microbiol Rev. 1986 Sep;50(3):227–243. doi: 10.1128/mr.50.3.227-243.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Glazer A. N. Light guides. Directional energy transfer in a photosynthetic antenna. J Biol Chem. 1989 Jan 5;264(1):1–4. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Golden J. W., Mulligan M. E., Haselkorn R. Different recombination site specificity of two developmentally regulated genome rearrangements. Nature. 1987 Jun 11;327(6122):526–529. doi: 10.1038/327526a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gray M. W., Doolittle W. F. Has the endosymbiont hypothesis been proven? Microbiol Rev. 1982 Mar;46(1):1–42. doi: 10.1128/mr.46.1.1-42.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Grossman A. R., Lemaux P. G., Conley P. B. Regulated synthesis of phycobilisome components. Photochem Photobiol. 1986 Dec;44(6):827–837. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1986.tb05543.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Haselkorn R. Organization of the genes for nitrogen fixation in photosynthetic bacteria and cyanobacteria. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1986;40:525–547. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.40.100186.002521. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Houmard J., Capuano V., Coursin T., Tandeau de Marsac N. Genes encoding core components of the phycobilisome in the cyanobacterium Calothrix sp. strain PCC 7601: occurrence of a multigene family. J Bacteriol. 1988 Dec;170(12):5512–5521. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.12.5512-5521.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Mazel D., Guglielmi G., Houmard J., Sidler W., Bryant D. A., Tandeau de Marsac N. Green light induces transcription of the phycoerythrin operon in the cyanobacterium Calothrix 7601. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Nov 11;14(21):8279–8290. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.21.8279. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Oelmüller R., Conley P. B., Federspiel N., Briggs W. R., Grossman A. R. Changes in Accumulation and Synthesis of Transcripts Encoding Phycobilisome Components during Acclimation of Fremyella diplosiphon to Different Light Qualities. Plant Physiol. 1988 Dec;88(4):1077–1083. doi: 10.1104/pp.88.4.1077. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rippka R., Herdman M. Division patterns and cellular differentiation in cyanobacteria. Ann Inst Pasteur Microbiol. 1985 Jan-Feb;136A(1):33–39. doi: 10.1016/s0769-2609(85)80018-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Walsby A. E., Hayes P. K. Gas vesicle proteins. Biochem J. 1989 Dec 1;264(2):313–322. doi: 10.1042/bj2640313. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Plant Cell are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES