Growth of Cyanobacteria Is Constrained by the Abundance of Light and Carbon Assimilation Proteins.

Jahn M, Vialas V, Karlsen J, Maddalo G, Edfors F, Forsström B, Uhlén M, Käll L, Hudson EP

Cell Reports 25 (2) 478-486.e8 [2018-10-09; online 2018-10-12]

Cyanobacteria must balance separate demands for energy generation, carbon assimilation, and biomass synthesis. We used shotgun proteomics to investigate proteome allocation strategies in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as it adapted to light and inorganic carbon (Ci) limitation. When partitioning the proteome into seven functional sectors, we find that sector sizes change linearly with growth rate. The sector encompassing ribosomes is significantly smaller than in E. coli, which may explain the lower maximum growth rate in Synechocystis. Limitation of light dramatically affects multiple proteome sectors, whereas the effect of Ci limitation is weak. Carbon assimilation proteins respond more strongly to changes in light intensity than to Ci. A coarse-grained cell economy model generally explains proteome trends. However, deviations from model predictions suggest that the large proteome sectors for carbon and light assimilation are not optimally utilized under some growth conditions and may constrain the proteome space available to ribosomes.

Paul Hudson

SciLifeLab Fellow

PubMed 30304686

DOI 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.09.040

Crossref 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.09.040

pii: S2211-1247(18)31485-2


Publications 9.5.1