Unravelling the involvement of protein disorder in cyanobacterial stress responses

This study has explored the involvement of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs) in cyanobacterial stress response. IDPs possess distinct physicochemical properties, which allow them to execute diverse functions. Anabaena PCC 7120, the model photosynthetic, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium encodes 688 proteins (11 % of the total proteome) with at least one intrinsically disordered region (IDR). Of these, 130 proteins that showed >30 % overall disorder were designated as IDPs. Physico-chemical analysis, showed these IDPs to adopt shapes ranging from 'globular' to 'tadpole-like'. Upon exposure to NaCl, 41 IDP-encoding genes were found to be differentially expressed. Surprisingly, most of these were induced, indicating the importance of IDP-accumulation in overcoming salt stress. Subsequently, six IDPs were identified to be induced by multiple stresses (salt, ammonium and selenite). Interestingly, the presence of these 6-multiple stress-induced IDPs was conserved in filamentous cyanobacteria. Utilizing the experimental proteomic data of Anabaena, these 6 IDPs were found to interact with many proteins involved in diverse pathways, underscoring their physiological importance as protein hubs. This study lays the framework for IDP-related research in Anabaena by (a) identifying, as well as physiochemically characterizing, all the disordered proteins and (b) uncovering a subset of IDPs that are likely to be critical in adaptation to environmental stresses.