Superoxide dismutases (Sods) play very important roles in preventing oxidative damages in aerobic organisms. The nitrogen-fixing heterocystous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 has two Sod-encoding genes: a sodB, encoding a soluble iron-containing Sod (FeSod), and a sodA, encoding a manganese-containing Sod (MnSod). The FeSod was purified and characterized. A recombinant FeSod was als...

Heterocysts isolated from Anabaena sp. strain 7120 with lysozyme plus sonication were permeabilized with the cationic detergent cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, and they then exhibited comparable acetylene reduction activity in the light and dark with an ATP-regenerating system plus dithionite. The detergent diminished the effect of H2 in enhancing acetylene reduction.

Phycocyanins of two unicellular (Synechococcus sp., and Aphanocapsa sp.), and one filamentous (Anabaena sp.) bluegreen alga, have been purified and characterized with respect to behavior on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the absence of denaturing agents, isoelectric point, absorption spectra in the visible region, subunit molecular weights, and amino acid composition. The OL and /3 subun...

Unlike those of the wild-type strain, proheterocysts of the Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 hetC strain keep dividing. ftsZ, the most critical cell division gene, is up-regulated in hetC proheterocysts. Heterocyst differentiation genes hglD, hglE, patB, nifB, and xisA are no longer expressed in the hetC mutant. hetC also regulates the expression of patA, a pattern formation gene.

PatA resembles a response regulator protein with a defective DNA-binding domain, and PatL (All3305) is a pentapeptide repeat protein. A yeast two-hybrid library identified PatL as a protein with which PatA may interact. Heterocysts of patA and patL Anabaena sp. form nearly exclusively terminally in long filaments, further linking the genes.

We report the complete nucleotide sequence of Anabaena sp. 4-3, an efficient producer of sucrose. It was isolated from salt flats near the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. The genome may provide insight into the utilization of cyanobacteria as a source for biofuels.

Uncoupler CCCP inhibited the growth of Anabaena sp. CH1 and CH2 and reduced their photosynthetic rate and nitrogenase activity. It was determined that upon CCCP addition, nitrogenase activities of CH1 and CH2 declined to almost zero within 1 and 6 hours. Such decline may be caused by the direct inhibition of nitrogenase synthesis rather than by indirect interruption of the phosphorylation process.

Fox- mutants of Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 are unable to fix dinitrogen in the presence of oxygen. A fragment of the DNA of Anabaena sp. was cloned by complementation of a spontaneous Fox-, cyanophage-resistant mutant, R56, and characterized. Random insertion of transposon Tn5 delimited the complementing DNA to a 0.6-kb portion of the cloned fragment. Sequencing of this region and flanking DN...

HetR is a serine-type protease required for heterocyst differentiation in heterocystous cyanobacteria under conditions of nitrogen deprivation. We have identified the active Ser residue of HetR from Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 by site-specific mutagenesis. By changing the S152 residue to an Ala residue, the mutant protein cannot be labeled by Dansyl fluoride, a specific serine-type protein inh...