Author: Herr Dr. Amoneit
Last saved by: Saritas, Sevim

Stress Responses in Cyanobacteria involve Differential
Expression of Genes Encoding Desaturases
Faten Ben Amor, Imen Fendri, Unité de recherche Toxicologie Microbiologie Environnementale et Santé, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax 
Sfax, Tunisia

Cyanobacteria is responsible for a significant part of global primary production as well as being one of the most abundant organisms on Earth. Lipids turnover are an essential and poorly understood aspect of the cyanobacterial response to environmental stresses. In the present work, cultures of Spirulina, Nostoc and Prochlorococcus strains were subjected to several conditions and quantitative real time RT-PCR were used to measure changes in the expression of genes encoding desaturases. We found common responses to Nitrogen deficiency. However, the expression pattern under high temperature was strikingly different in the three strains, probably reflecting the different regulatory backgrounds of the three ecotypes here studied.