title: In silico characterization and transcriptomic analysis of nif family genes from Anabaena sp. PCC7120.
abstract: In silico approaches in conjunction with morphology, nitrogenase activity, and qRT-PCR explore the impact of selected abiotic stressor such as arsenic, salt, cadmium, copper, and butachlor on nitrogen fixing (nif family) genes of diazotrophic cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC7120. A total of 19 nif genes are present within the Anabaena genome that is involved in the process of nitrogen fixation. Docking studies revealed the interaction between these nif gene-encoded proteins and the selected abiotic stressors which were further validated through decreased heterocyst frequency, fragmentation of filaments, and downregulation of nitrogenase activity under these stresses indicating towards their toxic impact on nitrogen fixation potential of filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC7120. Another appealing finding of this study is even though having similar binding energy and similar interacting residues between arsenic/salt and copper/cadmium to nif-encoded proteins, arsenic and cadmium are more toxic than salt and copper for nitrogenase activity of Anabaena which is crucial for growth and yield of rice paddy and soil reclamation.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Section, Laboratory of Algal Biology, Center of Advanced Study in Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India. shilpi.0805@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shilpi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Mahatma Gandhi Central University Bihar, District: East Champaran, Motihari, 845401, India.
authors.forename: Alok Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017033:Anabaena / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D003198:Computer Simulation; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation / Q000235:genetics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D059467:Transcriptome; D000073359:Exome Sequencing / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D010088:Oxidoreductases
keywords: Abiotic stresses; Anabaena sp. PCC7120; Bioinformatics; CD search; Docking; Homology modeling; qRT