Investigation of the functional role of Ctp proteins in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp PCC 6803

To understand the functional role of CtpB and CtpC proteins, which are similar to the C-terminal processing CtpA peptidase, the effect of the insertional inactivation of the ctpB and ctpC genes on the phenotypic characteristics of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 was studied. The inactivation of the ctpC gene was found to be lethal to the cyanobacterium, which indicates a vital role of the CtpC protein. The mutant with the inactivated ctpB gene had the same photosynthetic characteristics as the wild-type strain. The double mutant DeltactpADeltactpB with the two deleted genes was identical, in the phenotypic characteristics, to the mutant with a knock-out mutation in the ctpA gene, which was unable to grow photoautotrophically. The data obtained suggest that, in spite of the high similarity of the Ctp proteins, they serve different functions in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 cells and cannot compensate for each other.