Phototaxis of Cyanobacteria under Complex Light Environments

Photosynthetic bacteria are capable of producing their own food via photosynthesis. Unsurprisingly, they evolved the ability to move toward better light conditions (i.e., phototaxis). In a recent article in mBio, Chau et al. tuned the wavelength, flux, direction, and timing of light input and characterized the motility of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803 (R. M. W. Chau, D. Bhaya, and K. C. Huang, mBio 8:e02330-16, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02330-16). The results revealed an intricate dependence of the motility on various light inputs, laying the fundamental groundwork toward understanding phototaxis under complex and dynamic light environments.