Bacteria can anticipate the seasons: Photoperiodism in cyanobacteria

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jabbur, Maria Luisa; Bratton, Benjamin P.; Johnson, Carl Hirschie
• 署名单位: Vanderbilt University; Vanderbilt University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-12842
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ado8588
• 发表日期: 2024-09-06
• 页码: 1105-1111
• 关键词: chill-light tolerance; gene-expression; clock-protein; GROWTH; temperature; diapause; rhythms; stress; ftsw

摘要

Photoperiodic time measurement is the ability of plants and animals to measure differences in day versus night length (photoperiod) and use that information to anticipate critical seasonal transformations, such as annual temperature cycles. This timekeeping phenomenon triggers adaptive responses in higher organisms, such as gonadal stimulation, flowering, and hibernation. Unexpectedly, we observed this capability in cyanobacteria-unicellular prokaryotes with generation times as short as 5 to 6 hours. Cyanobacteria exposed to short, winter-like days developed enhanced resistance to cold mediated by desaturation of membrane lipids and differential programs of gene transcription, including stress response pathways. As in eukaryotes, this photoperiodic timekeeping required an intact circadian clockwork and developed over multiple cycles of photoperiod. Therefore, photoperiodic timekeeping evolved in much simpler organisms than previously appreciated and enabled genetic responses to stresses that recur seasonally.