Microorganisms often respond to their environment by growing as densely packed communities in biofilms, flocs or granules. One major advantage of life in these aggregates is the retention of its community in an ecosystem despite flowing water. We describe here a novel type of granule dominated by filamentous and motile cyanobacteria of the order Oscillatoriales. These bacteria form a mat-like photoactive outer layer around an otherwise unconsolidated core. The spatial organization of the phototrophic layer resembles microbial mats growing on sediments but is spherical. We describe the production of these oxygenic photogranules under static batch conditions, as well as in turbulently mixed bioreactors. Photogranulation defies typically postulated requirements for granulation in biotechnology, i.e., the need for hydrodynamic shear and selective washout. Photogranulation as described here is a robust phenomenon with respect to inoculum characteristics and environmental parameters like carbon sources. A bioprocess using oxygenic photogranules is an attractive candidate for energy-positive wastewater treatment as it biologically couples CO2 and O2 fluxes. As a result, the external supply of oxygen may become obsolete and otherwise released CO2 is fixed by photosynthesis for the production of an organic-rich biofeedstock as a renewable energy source.
Cilia and flagella are conserved hair-like appendages of eukaryotic cells that function as sensing and motility generating organelles. Motility is driven by thousands of axonemal dyneins that require precise regulation. One essential motility regulator is the central pair complex (CPC) and many CPC defects cause paralysis of cilia/flagella. Several human diseases, such as immotile cilia syndrome, show CPC abnormalities, but little is known about the detailed three-dimensional structure and function of the CPC. The CPC is located in the center of typical [9+2] cilia/flagella and is composed of two singlet microtubules, each with a set of associated projections that extend toward the surrounding nine doublet microtubules. Using cryo-electron tomography coupled with subtomogram averaging, we visualized and compared the three-dimensional structures of the CPC in both the green alga Chlamydomonas and the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus at the highest resolution published to date. Despite the evolutionary distance between these species, their CPCs exhibit remarkable structural conservation. We identified several new projections, including those that form the elusive sheath, and show that the bridge has a more complex architecture than previously thought. Organism-specific differences include the presence of microtubule inner proteins in Chlamydomonas, but not Strongylocentrotus, and different overall outlines of the highly connected projection network, which forms a round-shaped cylinder in algae, but is more oval in sea urchin. These differences could be adaptations to the mechanical requirements of the rotating CPC in Chlamydomonas, compared to the Strongylocentrotus CPC which has a fixed orientation.
Cryo–electron tomography of Chlamydomonas flagella reveals previously uncharacterized features of the radial spokes, including structural heterogeneity and direct interactions with dyneins and between the spoke heads. A “radial spoke 3 stand-in” occupies what would be the site of a third spoke in organisms with spoke triplets.
Radial spokes are ubiquitous components of motile cilia and flagella and play an essential role in transmitting signals that regulate the activity of the dynein motors, and thus ciliary and flagellar motility. In some organisms the 96 nm axonemal repeat unit contains only a pair of two spokes, RS1 and RS2, while most organisms have spoke triplets with an additional spoke RS3. The spoke pair in Chlamydomonas flagella has been well characterized, while spoke triplets have received less attention. Here, we used cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging to visualize the 3D structure of spoke triplets in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (sea urchin) sperm flagella in unprecedented detail. Only small differences were observed between RS1 and RS2, but the structure of RS3 was surprisingly unique and structurally different from the other two spokes. We observed novel doublet specific features that connect RS2, RS3 and the nexin-dynein regulatory complex, three key ciliary and flagellar structures. The distribution of these doublet specific structures suggests that they could be important for establishing the asymmetry of dynein activity required for the oscillatory movement of cilia and flagella. Surprisingly, a comparison with other organisms demonstrated both that this considerable radial spoke heterogeneity is conserved and that organisms with radial spoke pairs contain the basal part of RS3. This conserved radial spoke heterogeneity may also reflect functional differences between the spokes and their involvement in regulating ciliary and flagellar motility.
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