Organic Osmoregulatory Solutes in Cyanobacteria

The major organic osmoregulatory solutes of 36 cyanobacteria from a wide range of environmental sources have been examined using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. These strains were also examined for their salt-tolerance, and could be arranged in three salt-tolerance groups, designated freshwater, marine and hypersaline. The most salt-tolerant cyanobacteria in the hypersaline group are properly classified as moderately halophilic. Cyanobacteria from all habitats and taxonomic groups accumulated organic osmoregulatory solutes, and the chemical class of the solute correlated with the salt-tolerance and habitat of the strain. Freshwater strains accumulated simple saccharides, predominantly sucrose and trehalose; marine strains accumulated the heteroside O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-glycerol, and hypersaline strains accumulated sucrose and/or trehalose together with glycine betaine or the novel solute L-glutamate betaine (N-trimethyl-L-glutamate) or they accumulated glycine betaine alone. The results suggest that the presence of certain major organic osmoregulatory solutes may be useful in the numerical taxonomy of cyanobacteria, and in the identification of some ionic characteristics of the environment of origin of each isolate.

[1]  R. Storey,et al.  Quaternary ammonium compounds in plants in relation to salt resistance , 1977 .

[2]  H. Kauss.  Metabolism of Isofloridoside (O-α-D-Galactopyranosyl-(1→1)-Glycerol) and Osmotic Balance in the Fresh Water Alga Ochromonas , 1967, Nature.

[3]  R. Poulson.  Isolation, Purification and Fractionation of RNA , 1973 .

[4]  R. Norton,et al.  Natural-abundance 13C nuclear magnetic resonance studies on the internal solutes of xerophilic fungi , 1983 .

[5]  R. Norton.  Identification of mollusc metabolites by natural-abundance 13C NMR studies of whole tissue and tissue homogenates , 1979 .

[6]  R. Norton,et al.  The physical state of osmoregulatory solutes in unicellular algae. A natural-abundance carbon-13 nuclear-magnetic-resonance relaxation study. , 1982, The Biochemical journal.

[7]  G. Feige.  Ecophysiological aspects of carbohydrate metabolism in the marine blue green algae lichen Lichina pygmaea AG. , 1972 .

[8]  J. Simpson,et al.  Water relations of sugar-tolerant yeasts: the role of intracellular polyols. , 1972, Journal of general microbiology.

[9]  R. Reed,et al.  The halophilic cyanobacterium Synechocystis DUN52 and its osmotic responses , 1983 .

[10]  W. Stam,et al.  CULTURES OF PHORMIDIUM, PLECTONEMA, LYNGBYA AND SYNECHOCOCCUS (CYANOPHYCEAE) UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS - THEIR GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY , 1979 .

[11]  J. Rozema,et al.  Population Dynamics of Glaux maritima and Ecophysiological Adaptations to Salinity and Inundation , 1978 .

[12]  J. Waterbury,et al.  Generic assignments, strain histories, and properties of pure cultures of cyanobacteria , 1979 .

[13]  R. Norton,et al.  Marine blue-green algae have a unique osmoregulatory system , 1983 .

[14]  A. D. Brown,et al.  Microbial water stress. , 1976, Bacteriological reviews.

[15]  W. Stam,et al.  INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SALINITIES ON GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY OF A NUMBER OF PHORMIDIUM STRAINS (CYANOPHYCEAE) IN CULTURE , 1975 .

[16]  S. A. Gross.  Storage of products , 1974 .

[17]  J. Fendler,et al.  13C Nmr Spectroscopy in Macromolecular Systems of Biochemical Interest , 1976 .

[18]  R. Reed,et al.  Carbohydrate Accumulation and Osmotic Stress in Cyanobacteria , 1984 .

[19]  R. Wood,et al.  Osmoregulatory Mechanisms of the Mesohalophilic Dead Sea Bacterium Ba1 , 1982 .

[20]  G. Russell,et al.  The Effects of Salinity upon Galactosyl-Glycerol Content and Concentration of the Marine Red Alga Porphyra purpurea (Roth) C.Ag. , 1980 .

[21]  R. Jones,et al.  An assessment of quaternary ammonium and related compounds as osmotic effectors in crop plants. , 1979, Basic life sciences.

[22]  Betaine, a compatible solute in the extremely halophilic phototrophic bacterium Ectothiorhodospira halochloris , 1982 .

[23]  R. Norton,et al.  Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance study of osmoregulation in a blue-green alga. , 1980, Science.

[24]  Donald M Miller,et al.  Isolation, purification and evidence for a halophilic nature of the blue-green alga Aphanothece halophytica Fremy (Chroococcales) , 1978 .

[25]  D. Stewart.  NITROGEN FIXATION BY MYXOPHYCEAE FROM MARINE ENVIRONMENTS. , 1964, Journal of general microbiology.

[26]  R. Jones,et al.  Betaine and choline levels in plants and their relationship to NaCl stress , 1975 .

[27]  C. Van Baalen.  Studies on Marine Blue-Green Algae , 1962 .

[28]  B. Kremer.  Photoassimilatory Products and Osmoregulation in Marine Rhodophyceae , 1979 .

[29]  D. Frank,et al.  Growth characteristics af low Na+ concentration and the stability of the Na+ requirement of a marine bacterium. , 1981, Canadian journal of microbiology.

[30]  D. Berns,et al.  The characterization of C-phycocyanin from an extremely halo-tolerant blue-green alga, Coccochloris elabens. , 1973, The Biochemical journal.