[Hsiu-An Chu/Chih-Horng Kuo] New Heat-Tolerant and Euryhaline Cyanobacterium from Dongsha Island Provides Insight into Extremophile Adaptation
POST:
A research team led by Drs. Hsiu-An Chu and Chih-Horng Kuo from the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, in collaboration with Dr. Ching-Nen Chen from the Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, has successfully decoded the complete genome sequence and conducted detailed study on a newly discovered unicellular cyanobacterial strain, Cyanobacterium sp. Dongsha4 (DS4).
Isolated from a high-temperature lagoon on Dongsha Island in the South China Sea, DS4 thrives at temperatures up to 50 °C and across a broad salinity range (0–6.6%), surpassing the environmental tolerance of most mesophilic cyanobacteria. Genomic analysis identifies DS4 as a close relative of Cyanobacterium aponinum PCC 10605 that was isolated from a hot spring in Italy, but represents a novel species and harbors unique genetic traits, including a full set of nitrogen fixation genes and multiple pathways for stress adaptation and novel metabolite biosynthesis. These findings provide valuable insights into how cyanobacteria adapt to extreme environments and highlight the biotechnological potential of DS4. The study has been published in the international journal BMC Microbiology.