Mutation: Construction and Analysis of Cyanobacterial Mutants in Photosynthesis Research

Abstract

Mutants in cyanobacteria, like in many other organisms, have been used to elucidate metabolic pathways, composition of macromolecular structures, uptake mechanisms for nutrients, and other phenomena in the cell. The importance of cyanobacterial mutagenesis has been particularly evident in photosynthesis research. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) Cyanobacteria are prokaryotes and amenable to a variety of genetic manipulations that are difficult to perform with plants; (2) photosynthesis in chloroplasts and cyanobacteria are basically similar. Thus, a fruitful approach to learn about plant photosynthesis is to study the simpler and genetically more favorable cyanobacterial system. The purpose of this review is to make the reader familiar with the construction and analysis of cyanobacterial mutants and their use in photosynthesis research. For methodological aspects we refer to reviews by Golden (1988), Joset (1988), Porter (1988) and Williams (1988).