ABC Transporter Required for Intercellular Transfer of Developmental Signals in a Heterocystous Cyanobacterium

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2015-06
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Videau, Patrick
Rivers, Orion S.
Higa, Kelly C.
Callahan, Sean M.
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American Society for Microbiology
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In the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena, patS and hetN encode peptide-derived signals with many of the properties of morphogens. These signals regulate the formation of a periodic pattern of heterocysts by lateral inhibition of differentiation. Here we show that intercellular transfer of the patS- and hetN-dependent developmental signals from heterocysts to vegetative cells requires HetC, a predicted ATP-binding cassette transporter (ABC transporter). Relative to the wild type, in a hetC mutant differentiation resulted in a reduced number of heterocysts that were incapable of nitrogen fixation, but deletion of patS or hetN restored heterocyst number and function in a hetC background. These epistasis results suggest that HetC is necessary for conferring self-immunity to the inhibitors on differentiating cells. Nine hours after induction of differentiation, HetC was required for neither induction of transcription of patS nor intercellular transfer of the patS-encoded signal to neighboring cells. Conversely, in strains lacking HetC, the patS- and hetN-encoded signals were not transferred from heterocyst cells to adjacent vegetative cells. The results support a model in which the patS-dependent signal is initially transferred between vegetative cells in a HetC-independent fashion, but some time before morphological differentiation of heterocysts is complete, transfer of both signals transitions to a HetC-dependent process.
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Videau P, Rivers OS, Higa KC, Callahan SM. 2015. ABC transporter required for intercellular transfer of developmental signals in a heterocystous cyanobacterium. J Bacteriol 197:2685–2693. doi:10.1128/JB.00304-15.
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Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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