Transformation of the Filamentous Cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon

Abstract

One of the most thoroughly studied signal transduction pathways in cyanobacteria controls a process known as complementary chromatic adaptation (CCA). During CCA, cells sense the spectral distribution of ambient light and adjust the pigmentprotein composition of their photosynthetic light harvesting antennae structure, which is termed a phycobilisome, to maximize light absorbance. Thus, the pigmentation of the cells is linked to the spectral quality of the light in which the cells are grown; specifically, cells are red when grown in green light, when the phycobilisome contains high levels of the red pigmented protein phycoerythrin, and blue-green when grown in red light, when the phycobilisome contains high levels of the blue pigmented protein phycocyanin.