Dynamic Inventory of Intermediate Metabolites of Cyanobacteria in a Diurnal Cycle

Damini Jaiswal; Pramod P Wangikar

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101704

Dynamic Inventory of Intermediate Metabolites of Cyanobacteria in a Diurnal Cycle

iScience. 2020 Oct 20;23(11):101704. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101704. eCollection 2020 Nov 20.

Authors

Damini Jaiswal¹, Pramod P Wangikar^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
² DBT-PAN IIT Centre for Bioenergy, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
³ Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are gaining importance both as hosts for photoautotrophic production of chemicals and as model systems for studies of diurnal lifestyle. The proteome and transcriptome of cyanobacteria have been closely examined under diurnal growth, whereas the downstream effects on the intermediary metabolism have not received sufficient attention. The present study focuses on identifying the cellular metabolites whose inventories undergo dramatic changes in a fast-growing cyanobacterium, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 11801. We identified and quantified 67 polar metabolites, whose inventory changes significantly during diurnal growth, with some metabolites changing by 100-fold. The Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle intermediates peak at midday to support fast growth. The hitherto unexplored γ-glutamyl peptides act as reservoirs of amino acids. Interestingly, several storage molecules or their precursors accumulate during the dark phase, dispelling the notion that all biosynthetic activity takes place in the light phase. Our results will guide metabolic modeling and strain engineering of cyanobacteria.

Keywords: Microbiology; Omics.