Enhancing photosynthesis at high light levels by adaptive laboratory evolution

Photosynthesis is readily impaired by high light levels. Photosynthetic organisms have therefore evolved various mechanisms to cope with the problem. Here, we have dramatically enhanced the light tolerance of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis by adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). By combining repeated mutagenesis and exposure to increasing light intensities, we generated strains that grow under extremely high light (HL) intensities. HL tolerance was associated with more than 100 mutations in proteins involved in various cellular functions, including gene expression, photosynthesis and metabolism. Co-evolved mutations were grouped into five haplotypes, and putative epistatic interactions were identified. Two representative mutations, introduced into wild-type cells, each confer enhanced HL tolerance, but they affect photosynthesis and respiration in different ways. Mutations identified by ALE that allow photosynthetic microorganisms to cope with altered light conditions could be employed in assisted evolution approaches and strengthen the robustness of photosynthesis in crop plants.These files correspond to the annotated genome assembly for "WT t=0" used for tracking all mutations during the experiment. The sequence content is identical to the GenBank Accession Numbers provided in the article (CP073017-CP073023). We also include the Python script "rename_samreads_breseq.py" used in the article to process paired-end mapped reads with the pipeline breseq v.0.35.