Identification of hox genes and analysis of their transcription in the unicellular cyanobacterium Gloeocapsa alpicola CALU 743 growing under nitrate-limiting conditions.

The unicellular non-N(2)-fixing cyanobacterium Gloeocapsa alpicola CALU 743 contains a bidirectional hydrogenase. Parts of all structural genes, encoding the hydrogenase, were identified, cloned and sequenced. When comparing the sequences with analogous sequences from other cyanobacteria the highest similarity was observed with hox genes from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The hydrogenase activity increased considerably when the cells were grown aerobically in a medium with limiting concentrations of nitrate. However, the relative abundances of hoxH and hoxY transcripts, detected by RT-PCR, did not change significantly, demonstrating that the increase in the activity of G. alpicola hydrogenase was not a result of the increase of the transcription. In contrast, in Anabaena variabilis the induction of a bidirectional hydrogenase activity correlated with the relative level of hoxH and hoxY transcripts.