The ploidy level of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is highly variable and is influenced by growth phase and by chemical and physical external parameters
Abstract
Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a cyanobacterial model strain widely used to study many biological processes and is also applied for the production of biopolymers. Recently, it was reported that two of its substrains are highly polyploid. To test whether this can be generalized to the whole strain, six substrains were selected and their ploidy levels quantified. The ploidy levels of all substrains were highly growth phase regulated and the copy number was on average about 20 at an OD750 of 0.1 and about 4 at an OD750 of 2.5. In addition to growth phase, external conditions were found to influence the ploidy level, i.e. the copy number was elevated at lower light intensity and at higher phosphate concentrations (53 and 35 copies, respectively). In the absence of external phosphate, considerable growth was observed, although growth rate and growth yield were much lower than in the presence of either orthophosphate or genomic DNA as external source of phosphate. A rapid reduction in genome copy number was observed during growth in the absence of phosphate, indicating that replication ceased and genomes were distributed to the daughter cells. During prolonged incubation of stationary-phase cultures in the absence of phosphate, the cells eventually became monoploid. Taking the data together, the ploidy level of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is extremely variable and is influenced by both growth phase and physical and chemical environmental parameters.
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In Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, ploidy is influenced by external conditions such as light intensity and phosphate availability, indicating that genome copy number is a dynamic physiological property rather than a fixed strain characteristic.
“In Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, ploidy is also influenced by external conditions such as light intensity and phosphate availability, indicating that genome copy number is a dynamic physiological property rather than a fixed strain characteristic [203].”
From Cyanobacteria as a Photosynthetic Chassis for Metabolic Pathway Engineering with Heterologous Gene Expression (2026) · cites this paper as [203]
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“In Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, ploidy is also influenced by external conditions such as light intensity and phosphate availability, indicating that genome copy number is a dynamic physiological property rather than a fixed strain char-https acteristic [203].”
- Authors
- Zerulla, K., Ludt, K., & Soppa, J.
- Affiliations
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- ORCID
- Soppa, Jörg
- Venue
- Microbiology
- Publisher
- Microbiology Society
- Published
- 2016-05-01
- Volume
- 162
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 730-739
- ISSN
- 1350-0872 (ISSN-L)
- 1465-2080
- OpenAlex
- W2283216082
- Cited by
- 106
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 9.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Microbiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Keywords
- Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, polyploidy, genome copy number, growth phase, phosphate limitation, light intensity, cyanobacteria, genome replication, stationary phase, biopolymer production
- MeSH terms
- Phosphates, Polyploidy, Genome, Bacterial, Synechocystis, DNA Copy Number Variations
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