Synechococcus elongatus PCC 6301

The freshwater cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7942 (previously known as Anacystis nidulans R2) was the first cyanobacterium demonstrated to be reliably transformable by exogenously added DNA. Over the decades many genetic tools have been developed for Synechococcus and applied to other transformable cyanobacteria. Strain PCC 7942 is an obligate photoautotroph with a genome of approximately 2.7 Mb. It has been extensively studied by a multi-national research community with respect to: acquisition of inorganic carbon, transport and regulation of nitrogen compounds, response to iron deprivation, acclimation to a variety of nutrient stresses, adaptation to environmental variations in temperature and light intensity and photosynthesis. In recent years, Synechococcus PCC 7942 has taken a pioneering position as the only developed model system for exploring the mechanism of the prokaryotic circadian clock. Gene organization and sequence are nearly identical to another freshwater cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 6301 (SYNP6) except for a large inversion of 187 kb. The endpoints of this inversion are found in genes that may encode outer membrane porins, and thus the two proteins in question are polymorphic with respect to one another. These differences may explain the fact that SYNE7 is naturally competent for transformation while SYNP6 is not. (EBI Integr8)