Computational prediction of the osmoregulation network in Synechococcus sp. WH8102

Osmotic stress is caused by sudden changes in the impermeable solute concentration around a cell, which induces instantaneous water flow in or out of the cell to balance the concentration. Very little is known about the detailed response mechanism to osmotic stress in marine Synechococcus, one of the major oxygenic phototrophic cyanobacterial genera that contribute greatly to the global CO2 fixation.

Results: We present here a computational study of the osmoregulation network in response to hyperosmotic stress of Synechococcus sp strain WH8102 using comparative genome analyses and computational prediction.

In this study, we identified the key transporters, synthetases, signal sensor proteins and transcriptional regulator proteins, and found experimentally that of these proteins, 15 genes showed significantly changed expression levels under a mild hyperosmotic stress.

Conclusions: From the predicted network model, we have made a number of interesting observations about WH8102. Specifically, we found that (i) the organism likely uses glycine betaine as the major osmolyte, and others such as glucosylglycerol, glucosylglycerate, trehalose, sucrose and arginine as the minor osmolytes, making it efficient and adaptable to its changing environment; and (ii) sigma factor 38, one of the seven types of sigma factors, probably serves as a global regulator coordinating the osmoregulation network and the other relevant networks.

Author: Xizeng MaoVictor OlmanRhona StuartIan PaulsenBrian PalenikYing Xu
Credits/Source: BMC Genomics 2010, 11:291

Published on: 2010-05-10

Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please make sure to read our disclaimer prior to contacting 7thSpace Interactive. To contact our editors, visit our online helpdesk. If you wish submit your own press release, click here.

Comments Page 0 of 0

There are currently 0 comments to display.

+ Add New Comment

Custom Search