PNNL

Abstract

This study combines transcriptomic and proteomic profiling to provide new insights on the metabolic relationship between oxygenic photosynthesis and nitrogenase-mediated H2 production in the model cyanobacterium, Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142. To date, the proposed mechanisms used to describe the energy metabolism processes that support H2 production in Cyanothece 51142 have assumed that ATP and reductant requirements are derived solely from glycogen oxidation and/or cyclic-electron flow around photosystem I. The results from this study present and test an alternative hypothesis by showing that net-positive rates of oxygenic photosynthesis and increased expression of photosystem II reaction centers correspond and are synchronized with nitrogenase expression and H2 production. These findings provide a new and more complete view on the metabolic processes contributing to the energy budget of photosynthetic H2 production and highlight the likely role of photocatalytic H2O oxidation as a major participating process.