Marine microorganisms, particularly those residing in coastal areas, may come in contact with any number of chemicals of environmental or xenobiotic origin. The sensitivity and response of marine cyanobacteria to such chemicals is, at present, poorly understood. We have looked at the transcriptional response of well characterized Synechococcus open ocean (WH8102) and coastal (CC9311) isolates to two DNA damaging agents, mitomycin C and ethidium bromide, using whole-genome expression microarrays. The coastal strain showed differential regulation of a larger proportion of its genome following “shock” treatment with each agent. Many of the orthologous genes in these strains, including those encoding sensor kinases, showed different transcriptional responses, with the CC9311 genes more likely to show significant changes in both treatments. While the overall response of each strain was considerably different, there were distinct transcriptional responses common to both strains observed for each DNA damaging agent, linked to the mode of action of each chemical. In both CC9311 and WH8102 there was evidence of SOS response induction under mitomycin C treatment, with genes recA, lexA and umuC significantly upregulated in this experiment but not under ethidium bromide treatment. Conversely, ethidium bromide treatment tended to result in upregulation of the DNA-directed RNA polymerase genes, not observed following mitomycin C treatment. Interestingly, a large number of genes residing on putative genomic island regions of each genome also showed significant upregulation under one or both chemical treatments.

Recent genome analysis has suggested that an ornithine-urea cycle similar to that found in metazoans is present in diatoms, unicellular algae important in marine ecosystems. This was a surprise because the urea cycle had long been thought to have arisen in metazoans as a crucial pathway for cellular removal of fixed nitrogen. Functional analyses of the diatom urea-cycle enzyme carbamoyl phosphate synthase now reveal a novel role for the urea cycle in intracellular recovery of inorganic carbon and nitrogen. This pathway may contribute to the metabolic response of diatoms to episodic nitrogen availability, and may have an important role in carbon fixation into nitrogenous compounds essential for diatom growth and for the contribution of diatoms to marine productivity. Diatoms dominate the biomass of phytoplankton in nutrient-rich conditions and form the basis of some of the world’s most productive marine food webs1,2,3,4. The diatom nuclear genome contains genes with bacterial and plastid origins as well as genes of the secondary endosymbiotic host (the exosymbiont5)1,6,7,8,9,10, yet little is known about the relative contribution of each gene group to diatom metabolism. Here we show that the exosymbiont-derived ornithine-urea cycle, which is similar to that of metazoans but is absent in green algae and plants, facilitates rapid recovery from prolonged nitrogen limitation. RNA-interference-mediated knockdown of a mitochondrial carbamoyl phosphate synthase impairs the response of nitrogen-limited diatoms to nitrogen addition. Metabolomic analyses indicate that intermediates in the ornithine-urea cycle are particularly depleted and that both the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase cycles are linked directly with the ornithine-urea cycle. Several other depleted metabolites are generated from ornithine-urea cycle intermediates by the products of genes laterally acquired from bacteria. This metabolic coupling of bacterial- and exosymbiont-derived proteins seems to be fundamental to diatom physiology because the compounds affected include the major diatom osmolyte proline12 and the precursors for long-chain polyamines required for silica precipitation during cell wall formation11. So far, the ornithine-urea cycle is only known for its essential role in the removal of fixed nitrogen in metazoans. In diatoms, this cycle serves as a distribution and repackaging hub for inorganic carbon and nitrogen and contributes significantly to the metabolic response of diatoms to episodic nitrogen availability. The diatom ornithine-urea cycle therefore represents a key pathway for anaplerotic carbon fixation into nitrogenous compounds that are essential for diatom growth and for the contribution of diatoms to marine productivity.

Primary productivity of open ocean environments, such as those inhabited by marine picocyanobacteria, is often limited by low inorganic phosphate (P). To observe how these organisms cope with P starvation, we constructed a full genome microarray for Synechococcus sp. WH8102 and compared differences in gene expression under P-replete and P-limited growth conditions, including both early P stress, during extracellular alkaline phosphatase induction, and late P stress. A total of 36 genes showed significant upregulation (>log2 fold) whereas 23 genes were highly downregulated at the early time point; however, these changes in expression were maintained during late P stress for only 5 of the upregulated genes. Knockout mutants were constructed for genes SYNW0947 and SYNW0948, comprising a two-component regulator hypothesized to have a key function in regulating P metabolism. A high degree of overlap in the sets of genes affected by P stress conditions and in the knockout mutants supports this hypothesis; however, there is some indication that other regulators may be involved in this response in Synechococcus sp. WH8102. Consistent with what has been observed in many other cyanobacteria, the Pho regulon of this strain is comprised largely of genes for alkaline phosphatases, P transport or P metabolism. Interestingly, however, the exact composition and arrangement of the Pho regulon appears highly variable in marine cyanobacteria.

The deluge of data generated by genome sequencing has led to an increasing reliance on bioinformatic predictions, since the traditional experimental approach of characterizing gene function one at a time cannot possibly keep pace with the sequence-based discovery of novel genes. We have utilized Biolog phenotype MicroArrays to identify phenotypes of gene knockout mutants in the opportunistic pathogen and versatile soil bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a relatively high-throughput fashion. Seventy-eight P. aeruginosa mutants defective in predicted sugar and amino acid membrane transporter genes were screened and clear phenotypes were identified for 27 of these. In all cases, these phenotypes were confirmed by independent growth assays on minimal media. Using qRT-PCR, we demonstrate that the expression levels of 11 of these transporter genes were induced from 4- to 90-fold by their substrates identified via phenotype analysis. Overall, the experimental data showed the bioinformatic predictions to be largely correct in 22 out of 27 cases, and led to the identification of novel transporter genes and a potentially new histamine catabolic pathway. Thus, rapid phenotype identification assays are an invaluable tool for confirming and extending bioinformatic predictions.