Regulation of the carbon-concentrating mechanism in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp PCC6803 in response to changing light intensity and inorganic carbon availability

Photosynthetic organisms possess regulatory mechanisms to balance the various inputs of photosynthesis in a manner that minimizes over-excitation of the light-driven electron transfer apparatus, while maximizing the reductive assimilation of inorganic nutrients, most importantly inorganic carbon (C-i). Accordingly, the regulatory interactions coordinating responses to fluctuating light and responses to C-i availability are of fundamental significance. The inducible high affinity carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 has been studied in order to understand how it is integrated with the light and dark reactions of photosynthesis. To probe genetic regulatory mechanisms, genomic DNA microarrays were used to survey for differences in the expression of genes in response to a shift to high light conditions under conditions of either high or low C-i availability. Discrepancies in published experiments exist regarding the extent to which genes for the CCM are upregulated in response to high light treatment. These discrepancies may be due to critical differences in C-i availability existing during the different high light experiments. The present microarray experiments reexamine this by comparing high light treatment under two different C-i regimes: bubbling with air and bubbling with air enriched with CO2. While some transcriptional responses such as the downregulation of antenna proteins are quite similar, pronounced differences exist with respect to the differential expression of CCM and affiliated genes. The results are discussed in the context of a recent analysis revealing that small molecules that are intermediates of the light and dark reaction photosynthetic metabolism act as allosteric effectors of the DNA-binding proteins which modulate the expression of the CCM genes.