Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain <italic style="font-style: italic">Anabaena</italic> sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation

Xi HU; Weipeng WANG; Yali WANG; Degang NING; Xudong XU

doi:10.1007/s00343-025-5149-2

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Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation

Biology | Updated：2026-05-07

- Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation
- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology Vol. 44, Issue 2, Pages: 867-878(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
  2.Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
  3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
- Author bio：
  
  xuxudong@mail.ccnu.edu.cn, xux@ihb.ac.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-025-5149-2
  CLC：
- Received：14 May 2024，
  
  Accepted：21 May 2025，
  
  Online First：27 May 2025，
  
  Published：01 March 2026
- Accepted：
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HU Xi,WANG Weipeng,WANG Yali,et al.Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2026,44(02):867-878.
DOI：

HU Xi,WANG Weipeng,WANG Yali,et al.Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2026,44(02):867-878. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-025-5149-2.

摘要

Abstract

Microevolution of commonly used model bacterial strains may lead to inconsistent genetic analysis results across laboratories. To address this issue

it is helpful to introduce a verification strain that belongs to the same species as the model strain.

Anabaena

sp. PCC 7120 is the model cyanobacterial strain for studies of heterocyst differentiation

and inconsistent results produced with different substrains have been reported. Novel

Anabaena

isolates outside PCC 7120 and derivatives are needed for verification on analysis results. We report that two

Anabaena

strains independently isolated from natural environments

FACHB-595 and FACHB-709

are nearly identical to

Anabaena

sp. PCC 7120 in genome sequence (hundreds of SNPs

indels

insertions/deletions)

except for the changes in two of the six plasmids in one of the strains. We deleted genes involved in heterocyst differentiation and pattern formation—including

hetR

hetZ

hetP

hetC

patS

patU3

patX

patL

and

patA

—in the two new strains and observed phenotypes consistent with previous reports; in mutants of

nrrA

patN

however

we found accelerated or delayed heter

ocyst formation compared to the reports. Therefore

both FACHB-595 and FACHB-709 can serve as strains to verify the genetic analyses conducted using

Anabaena

sp. PCC 7120.

关键词

Keywords

references

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⁰

Discovery of two natural strains closely similar to the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 used in molecular studies of heterocyst differentiation

DOI：10.1007/s00343-025-5149-2

摘要

Abstract

关键词

Keywords

references