Pressurized Martian-Like Pure CO2 Atmosphere Supports Strong Growth of Cyanobacteria, and Causes Significant Changes in their Metabolism.

Surviving of crews during future missions to Mars will depend on reliable and adequate supplies of essential life support materials, i.e. oxygen, food, clean water, and fuel.

Hydrogen photoproduction by immobilized n2-fixing cyanobacteria: understanding the role of the uptake hydrogenase in the long-term process.

We have investigated two approaches to enhance and extend H2 photoproduction yields in heterocystous, N2-fixing cyanobacteria entrapped in thin alginate films. In the first approach, periodic CO2 supplementation was provided to alginate-entrapped, N-deprived cells. N deprivation led to the inhibition of photosynthetic activity in vegetative cells and the attenuation of H2 production over time.

Heterocyst-specific flavodiiron protein Flv3B enables oxic diazotrophic growth of the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120.

Flavodiiron proteins are known to have crucial and specific roles in photoprotection of photosystems I and II in cyanobacteria. The filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 contains, besides the four flavodiiron proteins Flv1A, Flv2, Flv3A, and Flv4 present in vegetative cells, two heterocyst-specific flavodiiron proteins, Flv1B and Flv3B.