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Relative stability of ploidy in a marine Synechococcus across various growth conditions

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posted on 2018-05-15, 10:06 authored by Blanca Perez-Sepulveda, Frances Pitt, An N. N'Guyen, Morgane Ratin, Laurence Garczarek, Andrew Millard, David J. Scanlan
Marine picocyanobacteria of the genus Synechococcus are ubiquitous phototrophs in oceanic systems. Consistent with these organisms occupying vast tracts of the nutrient impoverished ocean, most marine Synechococcus so far studied are monoploid, i.e., contain a single chromosome copy. The exception is the oligoploid strain Synechococcus sp. WH7803, which on average possesses around 4 chromosome copies. Here, we set out to understand the role of resource availability (through nutrient deplete growth) and physical stressors (UV, exposure to low and high temperature) in regulating ploidy level in this strain. Using qPCR to assay ploidy status we demonstrate the relative stability of chromosome copy number in Synechococcus sp. WH7803. Such robustness in maintaining an oligoploid status even under nutrient and physical stress is indicative of a fundamental role, perhaps facilitating recombination of damaged DNA regions as a result of prolonged exposure to oxidative stress, or allowing added flexibility in gene expression via possessing multiple alleles.

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Citation

Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2018, in press

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES/School of Medicine/Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation

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  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Environmental Microbiology Reports

Publisher

Wiley

eissn

1758-2229

Copyright date

2018

Available date

2018-05-15

Publisher version

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1758-2229.12614

Language

en

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