Purification and characterization of five members of photolyase/cryptochrome family from Cyanidioschyzon merolae

Abstract

The photolyase/cryptochrome family is a large family of flavoproteins that possess different functions and use blue light as an energy source. Photolyases repair UV-induced DNA damage, whereas cryptochromes regulate the growth and development of plants in a blue-light dependent manner. In this paper, we report the characterization of five genes the photolyase/cryptochrome family from the red algae Cyanidioschyzon merolae. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that one gene is close to the (6-4) photolyase, 3 to the cryptochrome-dash (CRY-DASH), and one gene is an independent clade. We investigated the diversity and similarity of the enzymes' biochemical and photochemical properties. Both biochemical and complementation assays indicated that one of the CRY-DASH genes (CmPHR6) is not involved in the repair of either ssDNA or dsDNA. In addition, we isolated the first known (6-4) photolyase from C. merolae, the most primitive photosynthetic organism, which will give evolutionary insights into this protein family.