Salt Stress Induces Paramylon Accumulation and Fine-Tuning of the Macro-Organization of Thylakoid Membranes in Cells.

The effects of salt stress condition on the growth, morphology, photosynthetic performance, and paramylon content were examined in the mixotrophic, unicellular, flagellate . We found that salt stress negatively influenced cell growth, accompanied by a decrease in chlorophyll (Chl) content. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy revealed the changes in the macro-organization of pigment-protein complexes due to salt treatment, while the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) investigations suggested a reduction in the thylakoid stacking, an effect confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Phosphatidylglycerol is implicated in divisome formation and metabolic processes of cyanobacteria.

Phosphatidylglycerol is an essential phospholipid for photosynthesis and other cellular processes. We investigated the role of phosphatidylglycerol in cell division and metabolism in a phophatidylglycerol-auxotrophic strain of Synechococcus PCC7942. Here we show that phosphatidylglycerol is essential for the photosynthetic electron transfer and for the oligomerisation of the photosynthetic complexes, notably, we revealed that this lipid is important for non-linear electron transport.