The origin of oxygenic photosynthesis in Cyanobacteria led to the rise of oxygen on Earth ~2.3 billion years ago, profoundly altering the course of evolution by facilitating the development of aerobic respiration and complex multicellular life. Here we report the genomes of 41 uncultured organisms related to the photosynthetic Cyanobacteria (class Oxyphotobacteria), including members of the cla...

Climate change scenarios predict that rivers, lakes, and reservoirs will experience increased temperatures, more intense and longer periods of thermal stratification, modified hydrology, and altered nutrient loading. These environmental drivers will have substantial effects on freshwater phytoplankton species composition and biomass, potentially favouring cyanobacteria over other phytoplankton....

UNLABELLED Here we present the first genomic characterization of viruses infecting Nostoc, a genus of ecologically important cyanobacteria that are widespread in freshwater. Cyanophages A-1 and N-1 were isolated in the 1970s and infect Nostoc sp. strain PCC 7210 but remained genomically uncharacterized. Their 68,304- and 64,960-bp genomes are strikingly different from those of other sequenced c...

Conversion of CO(2) for the synthesis of chemicals by photosynthetic organisms is an attractive target for establishing independence from fossil reserves. However, synthetic pathway construction in cyanobacteria is still in its infancy compared with model fermentative organisms. Here we systematically developed the 2,3-butanediol (23BD) biosynthetic pathway in Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 as...

Cyanobacteria are considered to be one of the most promising sources of new, natural products. Apart from non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides, ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) are one of the leading groups of bioactive compounds produced by cyanobacteria. Among these, cyanobactins have sparked attention due to their interesting bioactivities and for ...

Molecular surveys of aphotic habitats have indicated the presence of major uncultured lineages phylogenetically classified as members of the Cyanobacteria. One of these lineages has recently been proposed as a nonphotosynthetic sister phylum to the Cyanobacteria, the Melainabacteria, based on recovery of population genomes from human gut and groundwater samples. Here, we expand the phylogenomic...

The genome sizes of 128 strains of cyanobacteria, representative of all major taxonomic groups, lie in the range 1.6 x lo9 to 8.6 x lo9 daltons. The majority of unicellular cyanobacteria contain genomes of 1.6 x lo9 to 2-7 x lo9 daltons, comparable in size to those of other bacteria, whereas most pleurocapsalean and filamentous strains possess larger genomes. The genome sizes are discontinuousl...

Cyanobacteria exhibit biological rhythms as an adaptation to the daily light-dark (diel) cycle. Light is also crucial for bacteriophages (cyanophages) that infect cyanobacteria. As the first step of infection, the adsorption of some cyanophages to their host cells is light-dependent. Moreover, cyanophage replication is affected by light intensity and possibly the host cell cycle. Photosynthesis...

Latest publications indicate that Cyanobacteria and green algae can play an important role in symbiosis with other organisms and can produce active compounds (classified as secondary metabolites) that inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and fungi and increase plant growth. Some strains of Cyanobacteria can also assimilate atmospheric nitrogen, which enriches the soil and then is taken up ...

Prior to the evolution of DNA-based organisms on earth over 3.5 billion years ago it is hypothesized that RNA was the primary genetic molecule. Before RNA-based organisms arose, peptide nucleic acids may have been used to transmit genetic information by the earliest forms of life on earth. We discovered that cyanobacteria produce N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine (AEG), a backbone for peptide nucleic aci...