NC_010475:1582856 Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, complete genome
Host Lineage: Synechococcus; Synechococcus; Synechococcaceae; Chroococcales; Cyanobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: The cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 (formerly known as Agmenellum quadruplicatum strain PR-6) was originally isolated in 1961 by Chase Van Baalen from an onshore, marine mud flat sample derived from fish pens on Maguyes Island, La Parguera, Puerto Rico. The organism grows in brackish (euryhaline/marine) water and is unicellular but tends to form short filaments of two to four cells during exponential growth at the temperature optimum of 38 degrees C. The strain is extremely tolerant of high light intensities and has been grown at light intensities equivalent to two suns. This unique combination of physiological and genetic properties have long made this strain an important model system to studies of the oxygenic photosynthetic apparatus, the regulation of carbon and nitrogen metabolism, and other aspects of cyanobacterial physiology and metabolism.