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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 5247-5253, Vol. 67, No. 11
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.5247-5253.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Detection of the isiA Gene across Cyanobacterial Strains: Potential for Probing Iron Deficiency

U. Geiß,^1,2 J. Vinnemeier,² A. Kunert,² I. Lindner,² B. Gemmer,¹ M. Lorenz,³ M. Hagemann,² and A. Schoor^1,*

Institut für Ökologie, Botanisches Institut, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, D-17487 Greifswald,¹ FB Biowissenschaften, Universität Rostock, D-18051 Rostock,² and Experimentelle Phykologie und Sammlung von Algenkulturen, Albrecht-von-Haller-Insitut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen, D-37073 Göttingen,³ Germany

Received 18 April 2001/Accepted 7 August 2001

The use of isiA expression to monitor the iron status of cyanobacteria was investigated. Studies of laboratory cultures of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 showed that isiA expression is dependent on the organism's response to iron deficiency; isiA expression starts as soon as a decline in the rate of growth begins. isiA expression is switched on at concentrations of iron citrate of less than 0.7 µM. A PCR method was developed for the specific amplification of the iron-regulated isiA gene from a variety of cyanobacteria. After we developed degenerate primers, 15 new internal isiA fragments (840 bp) were amplified, cloned, and sequenced from strains obtained from algal collections, from new isolates, and from enriched field samples. Furthermore, isiA expression could be detected by means of reverse transcription-PCR when enriched field samples were exposed to restricted iron availability. These results imply that determining the level of iron-regulated isiA expression can serve to indicate iron deficiency in cyanobacterial samples of differing origins from the field.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Institut für Ökologie, Botanisches Institut, Grimmer Str. 88, D-17487 Greifswald, Germany. Phone: 49 3834 864147. Fax: 49 3834 864114. E-mail: schoor{at}uni-greifswald.de.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 5247-5253, Vol. 67, No. 11
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.5247-5253.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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