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The filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 was found to tolerate very high doses of Co-gamma radiation or prolonged desiccation. Post-stress, cells remained intact and revived all the vital functions. A remarkable capacity to repair highly disintegrated genome and recycle the damaged proteome appeared to underlie such high radioresistance and desiccation tolerance. The close similarity observed between the cellular response to irradiation or desiccation stress lends strong support to the notion that tolerance to these stresses may involve similar mechanisms.

Single-stranded (ss) DNA-binding (Ssb) proteins are vital for all DNA metabolic processes and are characterized by an N-terminal OB-fold followed by P/G-rich spacer region and a C-terminal tail. In the genome of the heterocystous, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120, two genes alr0088 and alr7579 are annotated as ssb, but the corresponding proteins have only the N-terminal OB-fold and no P/G-rich region or acidic tail, thereby rendering them unable to interact with genome maintenance proteins. Both the proteins were expressed under normal growth conditions in Anabaena PCC7120 and regulated differentially under abiotic stresses which induce DNA damage, indicating that these are functional genes. Constitutive overexpression of Alr0088 in Anabaena enhanced the tolerance to DNA-damaging stresses which caused formation of DNA adducts such as UV and MitomycinC, but significantly decreased the tolerance to γ-irradiation, which causes single- and double-stranded DNA breaks. On the other hand, overexpression of Alr7579 had no significant effect on normal growth or stress tolerance of Anabaena. Thus, of the two truncated Ssb-like proteins, Alr0088 may be involved in protection of ssDNA from damage, but due to the absence of acidic tail, it may not aid in repair of damaged DNA. These two proteins are present across cyanobacterial genera and unique to them. These initial studies pave the way to the understanding of DNA repair in cyanobacteria, which is not very well documented.

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Anabaena sp. PCC7120 possesses three genes coding for single-stranded DNA-binding (SSB) protein, of which ssb1 was a single gene, and ssb2 and ssb3 are the first genes of their corresponding operons. Regulation of the truncated ssb genes, ssb1 (alr0088) and ssb2 (alr7559), was unaffected by N-status of growth. They were negatively regulated by the SOS-response regulatory protein LexA, as indicated by the (i) binding of Anabaena LexA to the LexA box of regulatory regions of ssb1 and ssb2, and (ii) decreased expression of the downstream gfp reporter gene in Escherichia coli upon co-expression of LexA. However, the full-length ssb gene, ssb3 (all4779), was regulated by the availability of Fe and combined nitrogen, as indicated by (i) increase in the levels of SSB3 protein on Fe -depletion and decrease under Fe -excess conditions, and (ii) 1.5- to 1.6-fold decrease in activity under nitrogen-fixing conditions compared to nitrogen-supplemented conditions. The requirement of Fe as a co-factor for repression by FurA and the increase in levels of FurA under nitrogen-deficient conditions in Anabaena (Lopez-Gomollon et al. 2007) indicated a possible regulation of ssb3 by FurA. This was substantiated by (i) the binding of FurA to the regulatory region of ssb3, (ii) repression of the expression of the downstream gfp reporter gene in E. coli upon co-expression of FurA, and (iii) negative regulation of ssb3 promoter activity by the upstream AT-rich region in Anabaena. This is the first report on possible role of FurA, an important protein for iron homeostasis, in DNA repair of cyanobacteria.