On the dynamics and constraints of batch culture growth of the cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142

0382914 - ÚVGZ 2013 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Sinětova, Maria A. - Červený, Jan - Zavřel, Tomáš - Nedbal, Ladislav
On the dynamics and constraints of batch culture growth of the cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142.
Journal of Biotechnology. Roč. 162, č. 1 (2012), s. 148-155. ISSN 0168-1656. E-ISSN 1873-4863
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0073
Keywords : growth limitation * photoprotection * oscillations * Nitrogen fixation * microbial communication
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 3.183, year: 2012

The unicellular, nitrogen fixing cyanobacteriumCyanothecesp. ATCC51142 is of a remarkable potential for production of third-generation biofuels. As the biotechnological potential of Cyanothece51142 varies with the time of the day, we argue that it will, similarly, depend on the phase of the culturegrowth. Here, we study the batchculturedynamics to discover the dominant constraints in the individual growth phases and identify potential for inducing or delaying transitions between culturegrowth phases in Cyanothece51142. We found that specific growth rate in the exponential phase of the culture is much less dependent on incident irradiance than the photosynthetic activity. We propose that surplus electrons that are released by water splitting are used in futile processes providing photoprotection additional to non-photochemical quenching. We confirm that the transition from exponential to linear phase is caused by a light limitation and the transition from linear to stationary phase by nitrogen limitation. We observe spontaneous diurnal metabolic oscillations in stationary phase culture that are synchronized over the entire culture without an external clue. We tentatively propose that the self-synchronization of the metabolic oscillations is due to a cell-to-cell communication of the cyanobacteria that is necessary for nitrogenase activity in nitrate depleted medium.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0213007