Abstract
Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 is a thylakoid-lacking cyanobacterium. In the genome sequence of G. violaceus, we found a gene (glr0898) homologous to vipp1 (vesicle-inducing protein in plastids 1) gene that is known to be essential for formation of thylakoid membranes. We have shown that introduction of glr0898 into Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 complemented loss of the vipp1 gene (sll0617).
In this study, we characterized phenotypes of the Synechocystis transformants which contained glr0898 and completely lacked sll0617, and determined localization of Glr0898 in the transformants. Furthermore, we investigated the functional domains of Sll0617 protein and Glr0898 protein by a complementation test on the vipp1-knockdown mutants. Based on these results, the function of Glr0898 protein as VIPP1 protein will be discussed.
