R. Mohr's research while affiliated with University of Freiburg and other places

Acaryochloris marina is a symbiotic species of cyanobacteria that is capable of utilising far-red light. We report the characterisation of the phages A-HIS1 and A-HIS2, capable of infecting Acaryochloris. Morphological characterisation of these phages places them in the family Siphoviridae. However, molecular characterisation reveals that they do not show genetic similarity with any known siphoviruses. Whilst the phages do show synteny between each other, the nucleotide identity between the phages is low at 45-67 %, suggesting they diverged from each other some time ago. The greatest number of genes shared with another phage (a myovirus infecting marine Synechococcus) was four. Unlike most other cyanophages and in common with the Siphoviridae infecting Synechococcus no photosynthesis-related genes were found in the genome. CRISPR spacers from the host Acaryochloris had partial matches to sequences found within the phages, which is the first time CRISPRs have been reported in a cyanobacterial/cyanophage system. The phages also encode a homologue of the proteobacterial RNase T. The potential function of RNase T in the markup or digestion of crRNA hints at a novel mechanism for evading the host CRISPR system. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Leptolyngbya sp. strain Heron Island is a cyanobacterium exhibiting chromatic acclimation. However, this strain has strong interactions with other bacteria, making it impossible to obtain axenic cultures for sequencing. A protocol involving an analysis of tetranucleotide frequencies, G+C content, and BLAST searches has been described for separating the cyanobacterial scaffolds from those of its cooccurring bacteria.

Leptolyngbya sp. strain Heron Island is a cyanobacterium exhibiting chromatic acclimation. However, this strain has strong interactions with other bacteria, making it impossible to obtain axenic cultures for sequencing. A protocol involving an analysis of tetranucleotide frequencies, G+C content, and BLAST searches has been described for separating the cyanobacterial scaffolds from those of its cooccurring bacteria.

DNA polymerase γ is a family A DNA polymerase responsible for the replication of mitochondrial DNA in eukaryotes. The origins of DNA polymerase γ have remained elusive because it is not present in any known bacterium, though it has been hypothesized that mitochondria may have inherited the enzyme by phage-mediated nonorthologous displacement. Here, we present an analysis of two full-length homologues of this gene, which were found in the genomes of two bacteriophages, which infect the chlorophyll-d containing cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina. Phylogenetic analyses of these phage DNA polymerase γ proteins show that they branch deeply within the DNA polymerase γ clade and therefore share a common origin with their eukaryotic homologues. We also found homologues of these phage polymerases in the environmental Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA) database, which fell in the same clade. An analysis of the CAMERA assemblies containing the environmental homologues together with the filter fraction metadata indicated some of these assemblies may be of bacterial origin. We also show that the phage-encoded DNA polymerase γ is highly transcribed as the phage genomes are replicated. These findings provide data that may assist in reconstructing the evolution of mitochondria.

Chlorophyll d is a photosynthetic pigment that, based on chemical analyses, has only recently been recognized to be widespread in oceanic and lacustrine environments. However, the diversity of organisms harbouring this pigment is not known. Until now, the unicellular cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina is the only characterized organism that uses chlorophyll d as a major photopigment. In this study we describe a new cyanobacterium possessing a high amount of chlorophyll d, which was isolated from waters around Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef (23° 26' 31.2″ S, 151° 54' 50.4″ E). The 16S ribosomal RNA is 2% divergent from the two previously described isolates of A. marina, which were isolated from waters around the Palau islands (Pacific Ocean) and the Salton Sea lake (California), suggesting that it belongs to a different clade within the genus Acaryochloris. An overview sequence analysis of its genome based on Illumina technology yielded 871 contigs with an accumulated length of 8 371 965 nt. Their analysis revealed typical features associated with Acaryochloris, such as an extended gene family for chlorophyll-binding proteins. However, compared with A. marina MBIC11017, distinct genetic, morphological and physiological differences were observed. Light saturation is reached at lower light intensities, Chl d/a ratios are less variable with light intensity and the phycobiliprotein phycocyanin is lacking, suggesting that cyanobacteria of the genus Acaryochloris occur in distinct ecotypes. These data characterize Acaryochloris as a niche-adapted cyanobacterium and show that more rigorous attempts are worthwhile to isolate, cultivate and analyse chlorophyll d-containing cyanobacteria for understanding the ecophysiology of these organisms.