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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 1999, p. 3651-3659, Vol. 65, No. 8
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Diel Rhythms in Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase and Glutamine Synthetase Gene Expression in a Natural Population of Marine Picoplanktonic Cyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp.)

Michael Wyman*

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom

Received 12 March 1999/Accepted 24 May 1999

Diel periodicity in the expression of key genes involved in carbon and nitrogen assimilation in marine Synechococcus spp. was investigated in a natural population growing in the surface waters of a cyclonic eddy in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Synechococcus sp. cell concentrations within the upper mixed layer showed a net increase of three- to fourfold during the course of the experiment (13 to 22 July 1991), the population undergoing approximately one synchronous division per day. Consistent with the observed temporal pattern of phycoerythrin (CpeBA) biosynthesis, comparatively little variation was found in cpeBA mRNA abundance during either of the diel cycles investigated. In marked contrast, the relative abundance of transcripts originating from the genes encoding the large subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rbcL) and glutamine synthetase (glnA) showed considerable systematic temporal variation and oscillated during the course of each diel cycle in a reciprocal rhythm. Whereas activation of rbcL transcription was clearly not light dependent, expression of glnA appeared sensitive to endogenous changes in the physiological demands for nitrogen that arise as a natural consequence of temporal periodicity in photosynthetic carbon assimilation. The data presented support the hypothesis that a degree of temporal separation may exist between the most active periods of carbon and nitrogen assimilation in natural populations of marine Synecoccoccus spp.

* Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1786 467784. Fax: 44 1786 464994. E-mail: michael.wyman{at}stir.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 1999, p. 3651-3659, Vol. 65, No. 8
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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