The cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme can grow in a free-living state as multicellular vegetative filaments or as a plant symbiont. Symbiosis requires differentiation into infectious motile filaments termed hormogonia and can be stimulated by environmental conditions and by plant-derived hormogonium-inducing factors and is repressed by an unknown N. punctiforme hormogonium-repressing factor (HRF). Liaimer et al. analysed the effect of N. punctiforme secondary metabolites in the differentiation process and identified the nonribosomal peptide nostopeptolide as a HRF. Nostopeptolide was constitutively expressed in the free-living state and downregulated during plant symbiosis, and its addition was sufficient to repress hormogonia formation, demonstrating a role for this secondary metabolite during cell differentiation.
References
Liaimer, A. et al. Nostopeptolide plays a governing role during cellular differentiation of the symbiotic cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419543112 (2015)
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Du Toit, A. Metabolites in differentiation. Nat Rev Microbiol 13, 126 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3447
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3447