Cyanothece sp. PCC 7822
   
   
 
cyanothece image

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes with important roles in diverse aqueous environments. Many cyanobacteria can also fix nitrogen, a process biochemically incompatible with oxygenic photosynthesis. We are interested in the strategies employed by unicellular nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria to accommodate these processes, which the analysis of gene structure and regulation can help elucidate.

Cyanothece sp. PCC 7822 is a unicellular cyanobacterium isolated from rice fields in Cuttack, India. At 8-10 ?m in length, Cyanothece 7822 is the largest known Cyanothece strain. This is an aerobic nitrogen fixing strain. In addition to chlorophyll and phycocyanin, these cells contain the light harvesting pigment phycoerythrin which imparts an unusual brown color to the cells. These cells secrete large amounts of exopolysaccharides and tend to aggregate in culture.