Time-of-day-dependent responses of cyanobacterial cellular viability against oxidative stress

As an adaptation to periodic fluctuations of environmental light, photosynthetic organisms have evolved a circadian clock. Control by the circadian clock of many cellular physiological functions, including antioxidant enzymes, metabolism and the cell cycle, has attracted attention in the context of oxidative stress tolerance. However, since each physiological function works in an integrated manner to deal with oxidative stress, whether or not cell responses to oxidative stress are under circadian control remains an open question. In fact, circadian rhythms of oxidative stress tolerance have not yet been experimentally demonstrated. In the present work, we applied an assay using methyl viologen (MV), which generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) under light irradiation, and experimentally verified the circadian rhythms of oxidative stress tolerance in photosynthetic cells of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, a standard model species for investigation of the circadian clock. Here, we report that ROS generated by MV treatment causes damage to stroma components and not to the photosynthetic electron transportation chain, leading to reduced cell viability. The degree of decrease in cell viability was dependent on the subjective time at which oxidative stress was applied. Thus, oxidative stress tolerance was shown to exhibit circadian rhythms. In addition, the rhythmic pattern of oxidative stress tolerance disappeared in mutant cells lacking the essential clock genes. Notably, ROS levels changed periodically, independent of the MV treatment. Thus, we demonstrate for the first time that in cyanobacterial cells, oxidative stress tolerance shows circadian oscillation.