Screening and genetic characterization of thermo-tolerant Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 strains created by adaptive evolution

Temperature tolerance is an important aspect for commercial scale outdoor cultivation of microalgae and cyanobacteria. While various genes are known to be related to Synechocystis sp. PCC6803's heat shock response, there is very limited published data concerning the specific genes involved in long term thermal tolerance. We have previously used random mutagenesis and adaptive evolution to generate a mixture of strains of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 with significantly increased thermal tolerance. The genetic modifications leading to the phenotypes of the newly generated strains are the focus of this work