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Characterization of a Putative S-layer Protein of a Colonial Microcystis Strain

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Abstract

Cell surface structure plays a key role in Microcystis colony formation. The S-layer is a crystalline array of monomolecular proteins that constitute the outermost component of the cyanobacterial cell envelope. To date, no biochemical characterization of the S-layer protein in Microcystis has been reported. Here, we compared S-layer on the cell wall of the unicellular strain Microcystis aeruginosa PCC7806 with the colonial strain M. aeruginosa XW01. We observed crystalline S-layers in XW01 cell walls; however, similar structures were not observed in PCC7806. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis revealed a thick putative S-layer protein band with an apparent molecular weight of 70 kDa extracted from XW01 cells, as well as an S-layer peptide fragment with the sequence ETYPLLAAPGAATDATR, similar to the translated product from PCC7806 unknown gene CAO89090.1. The amino acid composition of the translated CAO89090.1 product shared biochemical characteristics with those of bacterial S-layer proteins. Furthermore, a 1002-bp DNA fragment amplified from XW01 displayed 95% similarity with the CAO89090.1 gene, while the S-layer gene expression in XW01 was 36-fold higher than that observed in PCC7806. These data suggested that the S-layer protein plays a key role in Microcystis colony formation due to its significant contribution to cell surface hydrophobicity.

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Acknowledgements

The project was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31370217) and the project of Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, Life Sciences College, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Wei-Wei Li, Ming-Sheng Xia, Wen-Bin Li, Li-Wen Liu, Ying Yang & Jian-Hong Li

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  1. Wei-Wei Li
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  2. Ming-Sheng Xia
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  3. Wen-Bin Li
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  4. Li-Wen Liu
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  5. Ying Yang
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  6. Jian-Hong Li
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Contributions

M-SX did the electron microscopy and cell electrophoresis, W-BL determined the gene expression, W-WL did protein mass spectrum (MS), the other co-authors help them finished the experiments and preparing the manuscript. Because there is less information about the biochemical characteristics of cyanobacterial S-layer, we had been wondering for a long time whether or not the protein identified by MS was S-layer. Recently, W-WL verified the result by carefully repeated experiments and did bioinformatics analysis. I think her work play a key role in this article. So, getting the approval of co-authors, I finally decided to changed her to the first author.

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Correspondence to Jian-Hong Li.

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Li, WW., Xia, MS., Li, WB. et al. Characterization of a Putative S-layer Protein of a Colonial Microcystis Strain. Curr Microbiol 75, 173–178 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-017-1362-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-017-1362-3

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