Suitability of Phycocyanin gene Sequences for the Identification of Cyanobacterial taxa belonging to Oscillatoriales

Author: Shakena Fathima T., Fayaazuddin T., Dhanveer Ahamed B., Prakash P., Akilan E., Asraf Sithikka M.R., Muralitharan G. and Thajuddin N.

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Abstract

Cyanobacteria, known as blue green algae have evolved over billions of years to survive in a variety of environments, including those with extreme temperatures, pH, and salinities. Identifying cyanobacteria can be challenging due to their morphological diversity, and the presence of similar-phenotypic with variations of genotypic characters. Most common problems encountered when identifying cyanobacteria are (1) Morphological variation of same taxa may differ in the natural environment and in laboratory conditions; (2) Taxonomic revisions are made frequently as cyanobacterial taxonomy is constantly revolving; (3) Cryptic species like those are morphologically similar but genetically distinct, (4) Cyanobacterial growth are influenced by the environmental conditions like light, temperature, pH leading to phenotypic variations and Lack of comprehensive reference databases. In this present study, modern genetic, cyto-morphological, and ecological methodologies must be included and integrated for cyanobacterial taxonomy in order for their contemporary systematics to be developed. Phycocyanin (PC) gene sequences were used taxonomic resolution between 7 different Oscillatorial species and their Phylogenetic analysis; primary-secondary structure prediction, Ramachandran plot and homology modeling were studied. The diversity was revealed after processing the phycocyanin gene sequence and was deposited in GenBank (NCBI). From this study, interference in strain level variations among different species belonging to same genus of Oscillatoriales were elaborated using PC gene sequences which can be considered as a suitable molecular marker for identification of cyanobacteria.

Keywords

Molecular Taxonomy, Phycocyanin, Phylogenetic resolution, Structure prediction, Oscillatoriales

Conclusion

Numerous studies demonstrated the limitations of categorising taxa based solely on morphological characteristics; therefore, phycocyanin gene sequencing was used for betterment of Cyanobacterial identification (Shakena et al., 2022; Heidari et al., 2003). Utilising the phycocyanin gene, the genetic diversity of the Oscillatoriaceae family Obtained from NRMC-F was studied. In order to expose the variability, the PC gene's sequence was further analysed using Phylogenetic analysis, primary and secondary structure prediction. The gene sequence was also compared with the reference phycocyanin gene from NCBI to determine the identity percentage among different strains belonging same genus with the help of Homology modelling.

References

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How to cite this article

Shakena Fathima T., Fayaazuddin T., Dhanveer Ahamed B., Prakash P., Akilan E., Asraf Sithikka M.R., Muralitharan G. and Thajuddin N. (2023). Suitability of Phycocyanin gene Sequences for the Identification of Cyanobacterial taxa belonging to Oscillatoriales. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(6): 491-498.