Effect of nitrate availability on expression of multi sensor histidine kinase gene in Spirulina platensis PCC 7345.

Addition of nitrate (NO3 (-)) to a suspension of NO3 (-)-depleted Spirulina platensis PCC 7345 restored back the PSII reaction centre efficiency. Using RAPD/RT-PCR differential display, we have detected the upregulation of a novel gene in filaments starved of nitrogen when enriched with NO3 (-). Semiquantitative RT-PCR clearly shows that NO3 (-) repletion induces the expression of this gene. Its nucleotide sequence is homologous to multi sensor histidine kinase (hstk) from Spirulina platensis NIES-39 and Spirulina maxima CS-328 genes. The open reading frame of this gene encodes a protein of 98 amino acids contains sensory domain of PAS domain.