Leptolyngbya CCM 4, a cyanobacterium with far-red photoacclimation from Cuatro Cienegas Basin, Mexico

A cyanobacterium containing phycobiliproteins with far-red acclimation was isolated from Pozas Rojas, Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico. It was named Leptolyngbya CCM 4 after phylogenetic analysis and a description of its morphological characteristics. Leptolyngbya was grown in far-red light. Sucrose-gradient analysis of the pigments revealed two different colored bands of phycobiliproteins. A band at 60% sucrose was a phycocyanin containing phycobilisome; at 35% sucrose, a new type of phycobiliprotein absorbed at 710 nm. SDS-PAGE revealed the presence of two types of core-membrane linkers. Analysis of the hydrophobic pigments extracted from the thylakoid membranes revealed Chl a, d, and f. The ratio of Chl f/a was reversibly changed from 1:12-16 under far-red light to an undetectable concentration of Chl f under white light. Cuatro Cienegas, a place surrounded by the desert, is a new ecosystem where a cyanobacterium, which grows in farred light, was discovered.