Dissecting the Photoprotective Mechanism Encoded by the flv4-2 Operon: a Distinct Contribution of Sll0218 in Photosystem II Stabilization

Limiting factors in the operation of photosystems I and II in cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are important targets for biotechnological applications due to their ability to grow in a wide variety of environments, rapid growth rates, and tractable genetic systems. They and their bioproducts can be used as bioplastics, biofertilizers, and in carbon capture and produce important secondary metabolites that can be used as pharmaceuticals. However, the photosynthetic process in cyanobacteria can be limited by a wide variety of environmental factors such as light intensity and wavelength, exposure to UV light, nutrient limitation, temperature, and salinity. Carefully considering these limitations, modifying the environment, and/or selecting cyanobacterial species will allow cyanobacteria to be used in biotechnological applications.

Electron transport in cyanobacterial thylakoid membranes: Are cyanobacteria simple models for photosynthetic organisms?

Cyanobacteria are structurally the simplest oxygenic phototrophs, which makes it difficult to understand the regulation of photosynthesis because the photosynthetic and respiratory processes share the same thylakoid membranes and cytosolic space. This review aimed to summarise the molecular mechanisms and in vivo activities of electron transport in cyanobacterial thylakoid membranes based on the latest progress in photosynthesis research in cyanobacteria. Photosynthetic linear electron transport for CO2 assimilation has the dominant electron flux in the thylakoid membranes. The capacity of O2 photoreduction in cyanobacteria is comparable to the photosynthetic CO2 assimilation, which is mediated by flavodiiron proteins. Additionally, cyanobacterial thylakoid membranes harbour the significant electron flux of respiratory electron transport through a homologue of respiratory complex I, which is also recognized as the part of cyclic electron transport chain if it is coupled with photosystem I in the light. Further, O2-independent alternative electron transports through hydrogenase and nitrate reductase function with reduced ferredoxin as the electron donor. Whereas all these electron transports are recently being understood one by one, the complexity as the whole regulatory system remains to be uncovered in near future.

Coral symbionts evolved a functional polycistronic flavodiiron gene

Photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, green algae, and basal land plants is protected against excess reducing pressure on the photosynthetic chain by flavodiiron proteins (FLV) that dissipate photosynthetic electrons by reducing O₂. In these organisms, the genes encoding FLV are always conserved in the form of a pair of two-type isozymes (FLVA and FLVB) that are believed to function in O₂ photo-reduction as a heterodimer. While coral symbionts (dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae) are the only algae to harbor FLV in photosynthetic red plastid lineage, only one gene is found in transcriptomes and its role and activity remain unknown. Here, we characterized the FLV genes in Symbiodiniaceae and found that its coding region is composed of tandemly repeated FLV sequences. By measuring the O₂-dependent electron flow and P700 oxidation, we suggest that this atypical FLV is active in vivo. Based on the amino-acid sequence alignment and the phylogenetic analysis, we conclude that in coral symbionts, the gene pair for FLVA and FLVB have been fused to construct one coding region for a hybrid enzyme, which presumably occurred when or after both genes were inherited from basal green algae to the dinoflagellate. Immunodetection suggested the FLV polypeptide to be cleaved by a post-translational mechanism, adding it to the rare cases of polycistronic genes in eukaryotes. Our results demonstrate that FLV are active in coral symbionts with genomic arrangement that is unique to these species. The implication of these unique features on their symbiotic living environment is discussed.

Photosynthesis and chloroplast redox signaling in the age of global warming: stress tolerance, acclimation, and developmental plasticity

Contemporary climate change is characterized by the increased intensity and frequency of environmental stress events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves, which have a debilitating impact on photosynthesis and growth, compromising the production of food, feed, and biofuels for an expanding population. The need to increase crop productivity in the context of global warming has fueled attempts to improve several key plant features such as photosynthetic performance, assimilate partitioning, and tolerance to environmental stresses. Chloroplast redox metabolism, including photosynthetic electron transport and CO2 reductive assimilation, are primary targets of most stress conditions, leading to excessive excitation pressure, photodamage, and propagation of reactive oxygen species. Alterations in chloroplast redox poise, in turn, provide signals that exit the plastid and modulate plant responses to the environmental conditions. Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in these processes could provide novel tools to increase crop yield in suboptimal environments. We describe herein various interventions into chloroplast redox networks that resulted in increased tolerance to multiple sources of environmental stress. They included manipulation of endogenous components and introduction of electron carriers from other organisms, which affected not only stress endurance but also leaf size and longevity. The resulting scenario indicates that chloroplast redox pathways have an important impact on plant growth, development, and defense that goes beyond their roles in primary metabolism. Manipulation of these processes provides additional strategies for the design of crops with improved performance under destabilized climate conditions as foreseen for the future.

Engineering Climate-Change-Resilient Crops: New Tools and Approaches

Environmental adversities, particularly drought and nutrient limitation, are among the major causes of crop losses worldwide. Due to the rapid increase of the world's population, there is an urgent need to combine knowledge of plant science with innovative applications in agriculture to protect plant growth and thus enhance crop yield. In recent decades, engineering strategies have been successfully developed with the aim to improve growth and stress tolerance in plants. Most strategies applied so far have relied on transgenic approaches and/or chemical treatments. However, to cope with rapid climate change and the need to secure sustainable agriculture and biomass production, innovative approaches need to be developed to effectively meet these challenges and demands. In this review, we summarize recent and advanced strategies that involve the use of plant-related cyanobacterial proteins, macro- and micronutrient management, nutrient-coated nanoparticles, and phytopathogenic organisms, all of which offer promise as protective resources to shield plants from climate challenges and to boost stress tolerance in crops.

Juggling Lightning: How Chlorella ohadii handles extreme energy inputs without damage

The green alga Chlorella ohadii was isolated from a desert biological soil crust, one of the harshest environments on Earth. When grown under optimal laboratory settings it shows the fastest growth rate ever reported for a photosynthetic eukaryote and a complete resistance to photodamage even under unnaturally high light intensities. Here we examined the energy distribution along the photosynthetic pathway under four light and carbon regimes. This was performed using various methodologies such as membrane inlet mass spectrometer with stable O₂ isotopes, variable fluorescence, electrochromic shift and fluorescence assessment of NADPH level, as well as the use of specific inhibitors. We show that the preceding illumination and CO₂ level during growth strongly affect the energy dissipation strategies employed by the cell. For example, plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) plays an important role in energy dissipation, particularly in high light- and low-CO₂-grown cells. Of particular note is the reliance on PSII cyclic electron flow as an effective and flexible dissipation mechanism in all conditions tested. The energy management observed here may be unique to C. ohadii, as it is the only known organism to cope with such conditions. However, the strategies demonstrated may provide an insight into the processes necessary for photosynthesis under high-light conditions.

Expression of Flavodiiron Proteins Flv2-Flv4 in Chloroplasts of Arabidopsis and Tobacco Plants Provides Multiple Stress Tolerance

With the notable exception of angiosperms, all phototrophs contain different sets of flavodiiron proteins that help to relieve the excess of excitation energy on the photosynthetic electron transport chain during adverse environmental conditions, presumably by reducing oxygen directly to water. Among them, the Flv2-Flv4 dimer is only found in β-cyanobacteria and induced by high light, supporting a role in stress protection. The possibility of a similar protective function in plants was assayed by expressing Synechocystis Flv2-Flv4 in chloroplasts of tobacco and Arabidopsis. Flv-expressing plants exhibited increased tolerance toward high irradiation, salinity, oxidants, and drought. Stress tolerance was reflected by better growth, preservation of photosynthetic activity, and membrane integrity. Metabolic profiling under drought showed enhanced accumulation of soluble sugars and amino acids in transgenic Arabidopsis and a remarkable shift of sucrose into starch, in line with metabolic responses of drought-tolerant genotypes. Our results indicate that the Flv2-Flv4 complex retains its stress protection activities when expressed in chloroplasts of angiosperm species by acting as an additional electron sink. The flv2-flv4 genes constitute a novel biotechnological tool to generate plants with increased tolerance to agronomically relevant stress conditions that represent a significant productivity constraint.

Flavodiiron proteins 1-to-4 function in versatile combinations in O2 photoreduction in cyanobacteria

Flavodiiron proteins (FDPs) constitute a group of modular enzymes widespread in Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has four FDPs (Flv1-4), which are essential for the photoprotection of photosynthesis. A direct comparison of light-induced O2 reduction (Mehler-like reaction) under high (3% CO2, HC) and low (air level CO2, LC) inorganic carbon conditions demonstrated that the Flv1/Flv3 heterodimer is solely responsible for an efficient steady-state O2 photoreduction under HC, with flv2 and flv4 expression strongly down-regulated. Conversely, under LC conditions, Flv1/Flv3 acts only as a transient electron sink, due to the competing withdrawal of electrons by the highly induced NDH-1 complex. Further, in vivo evidence is provided indicating that Flv2/Flv4 contributes to the Mehler-like reaction when naturally expressed under LC conditions, or, when artificially overexpressed under HC. The O2 photoreduction driven by Flv2/Flv4 occurs down-stream of PSI in a coordinated manner with Flv1/Flv3 and supports slow and steady-state O2 photoreduction.

Spectrally decomposed dark-to-light transitions in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Photosynthetic activity and respiration share the thylakoid membrane in cyanobacteria. We present a series of spectrally resolved fluorescence experiments where whole cells of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and mutants thereof underwent a dark-to-light transition after different dark-adaptation (DA) periods. Two mutants were used: (i) a PSI-lacking mutant (ΔPSI) and (ii) M55, a mutant without NAD(P)H dehydrogenase type-1 (NDH-1). For comparison, measurements of the wild-type were also carried out. We recorded spectrally resolved fluorescence traces over several minutes with 100 ms time resolution. The excitation light was at 590 nm so as to specifically excite the phycobilisomes. In ΔPSI, DA time has no influence, and in dichlorophenyl-dimethylurea (DCMU)-treated samples we identify three main fluorescent components: PB-PSII complexes with closed (saturated) RCs, a quenched or open PB-PSII complex, and a PB-PSII 'not fully closed.' For the PSI-containing organisms without DCMU, we conclude that mainly three species contribute to the signal: a PB-PSII-PSI megacomplex with closed PSII RCs and (i) slow PB → PSI energy transfer, or (ii) fast PB → PSI energy transfer and (iii) complexes with open (photochemically quenched) PSII RCs. Furthermore, their time profiles reveal an adaptive response that we identify as a state transition. Our results suggest that deceleration of the PB → PSI energy transfer rate is the molecular mechanism underlying a state 2 to state 1 transition.

Effects of PSII Manganese-Stabilizing Protein Succinylation on Photosynthesis in the Model Cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002

Lysine succinylation is a newly identified protein post-translational modification and plays important roles in various biological pathways in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, but its extent and function in photosynthetic organisms remain largely unknown. Here, we performed the first systematic studies of lysine succinylation in cyanobacteria, which are the only prokaryotes capable of oxygenic photosynthesis and the established model organisms for studying photosynthetic mechanisms. By using mass spectrometry analysis in combination with the enrichment of succinylated peptides from digested cell lysates, we identified 1,704 lysine succinylation sites on 691 proteins in a model cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that a large proportion of the succinylation sites were present on proteins in photosynthesis and metabolism. Among all identified succinylated proteins involved in photosynthesis, the PSII manganese-stabilizing protein (PsbO) was found to be succinylated on Lys99 and Lys234. Functional studies of PsbO were performed by site-directed mutagenesis, and mutants mimicking either constitutively succinylated (K99E and K234E) or non-succinylated states (K99R and K234R) were constructed. The succinylation-mimicking K234E mutant exhibited a decreased oxygen evolution rate of the PSII center and the efficiency of energy transfer during the photosynthetic reaction. Molecular dynamics simulations suggested a mechanism that may allow succinylation to influence the efficiency of photosynthesis by altering the conformation of PsbO, thereby hindering the interaction between PsbO and the PSII core. Our findings suggest that reversible succinylation may be an important regulatory mechanism during photosynthesis in Synechococcus, as well as in other photosynthetic organisms.

Hunting the main player enabling Chlamydomonas reinhardtii growth under fluctuating light

Photosynthetic organisms have evolved numerous photoprotective mechanisms and alternative electron sinks/pathways to fine-tune the photosynthetic apparatus under dynamic environmental conditions, such as varying carbon supply or fluctuations in light intensity. In cyanobacteria flavodiiron proteins (FDPs) protect the photosynthetic apparatus from photodamage under fluctuating light (FL). In Arabidopsis thaliana, which does not possess FDPs, the PGR5-related pathway enables FL photoprotection. The direct comparison of the pgr5, pgrl1 and flv knockout mutants of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii grown under ambient air demonstrates that all three proteins contribute to the survival of cells under FL, but to varying extents. The FDPs are crucial in providing a rapid electron sink, with flv mutant lines unable to survive even mild FL conditions. In contrast, the PGRL1 and PGR5-related pathways operate over relatively slower and longer time-scales. Whilst deletion of PGR5 inhibits growth under mild FL, the pgrl1 mutant line is only impacted under severe FL conditions. This suggests distinct roles, yet a close relationship, between the function of PGR5, PGRL1 and FDP proteins in photoprotection.

A Carbon Dioxide Limitation-Inducible Protein, ColA, Supports the Growth of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002

A limitation in carbon dioxide (CO₂), which occurs as a result of natural environmental variation, suppresses photosynthesis and has the potential to cause photo-oxidative damage to photosynthetic cells. Oxygenic phototrophs have strategies to alleviate photo-oxidative damage to allow life in present atmospheric CO₂ conditions. However, the mechanisms for CO₂ limitation acclimation are diverse among the various oxygenic phototrophs, and many mechanisms remain to be discovered. In this study, we found that the gene encoding a CO₂ limitation-inducible protein, ColA, is required for the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 (S. 7002) to acclimate to limited CO₂ conditions. An S. 7002 mutant deficient in ColA (ΔcolA) showed lower chlorophyll content, based on the amount of nitrogen, than that in S. 7002 wild-type (WT) under ambient air but not high CO₂ conditions. Both thermoluminescence and protein carbonylation detected in the ambient air grown cells indicated that the lack of ColA promotes oxidative stress in S. 7002. Alterations in the photosynthetic O₂ evolution rate and relative electron transport rate in the short-term response, within an hour, to CO₂ limitation were the same between the WT and ΔcolA. Conversely, these photosynthetic parameters were mostly lower in the long-term response of a few days in ΔcolA than in the WT. These data suggest that ColA is required to sustain photosynthetic activity for living under ambient air in S. 7002. The unique phylogeny of ColA revealed diverse strategies to acclimate to CO₂ limitation among cyanobacteria.