Phosphorus deficiency alleviates iron limitation in Synechocystis cyanobacteria through direct PhoB-mediated gene regulation

作者：Guo‐Wei Qiu, Wen-Can Zheng, Hao-Ming Yang, Y. X. Wang, Xing Qi, Da Huang, Guo‐Zheng Dai, Huazhong Shi, Neil M. Price, Bao‐Sheng Qiu · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-024-48847-4 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Marine and coastal ecosystems、Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics、Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Iron and phosphorus are essential nutrients that exist at low concentrations in surface waters and may be co-limiting resources for phytoplankton growth. Here, we show that phosphorus deficiency increases the growth of iron-limited cyanobacteria (Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803) through a PhoB-mediated regulatory network. We find that PhoB, in addition to its well-recognized role in controlling phosphate homeostasis, also regulates key metabolic processes crucial for iron-limited cyanobacteria, including ROS detoxification and iron uptake. Transcript abundances of PhoB-targeted genes are enriched in samples from phosphorus-depleted seawater, and a conserved PhoB-binding site is widely present in the promoters of the target genes, suggesting that the PhoB-mediated regulation may be highly conserved. Our findings provide molecular insights into the responses of cyanobacteria to simultaneous iron/phosphorus nutrient limitation.