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. 1986 Nov;168(2):769–774. doi: 10.1128/jb.168.2.769-774.1986

Effect of glutamine on growth and heterocyst differentiation in the cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis.

T Thiel, M Leone
PMCID: PMC213549  PMID: 2877968

Abstract

Mutants of the cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis that were capable of increased uptake of glutamine, as compared with that in the parental strains, were isolated. Growth of these mutants and their parental strains was measured in media containing N2, ammonia, or glutamine as a source of nitrogen. All strains grew well with any one of these sources of fixed nitrogen. Much of the glutamine taken up by the cells was converted to glutamate. The concentrations of glutamine, glutamate, arginine, ornithine, and citrulline in free amino acid pools in glutamine-grown cells were high compared with the concentrations of these amino acids in ammonia-grown or N2-grown cells. All strains capable of heterocyst differentiation, including a strain which produced nonfunctional heterocysts, grew and formed heterocysts in the presence of glutamine. However, nitrogenase activity was repressed in glutamine-grown cells. Glutamine may not be the molecule directly responsible for repression of the differentiation of heterocysts.

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Selected References

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

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