An unexpected role for leucyl aminopeptidase in UV tolerance revealed by a genome-wide fitness assessment in a model cyanobacterium

UV radiation (UVR) has significant physiological effects on organisms living at or near the Earth’s surface, yet the full suite of genes required for fitness of a photosynthetic organism in a UVR-rich environment remains unknown. This study reports a genome-wide fitness assessment of the genes that affect UVR tolerance under environmentally relevant UVR dosages in the model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. Our results highlight the importance of specific genes that encode proteins involved in DNA repair, glutathione synthesis, and the assembly and maintenance of photosystem II, as well as genes that encode hypothetical proteins and others without an obvious connection to canonical methods of UVR tolerance. Disruption of a gene that encodes a leucyl aminopeptidase (LAP) conferred the greatest UVR-specific decrease in fitness. Enzymatic assays demonstrated a strong pH-dependent affinity of the LAP for the dipeptide cysteinyl-glycine, suggesting an involvement in glutathione catabolism as a function of night-time cytosolic pH level. A low differential expression of the LAP gene under acute UVR exposure suggests that its relative importance would be overlooked in transcript-dependent screens. Subsequent experiments revealed a similar UVR-sensitivity phenotype in LAP knockouts of other organisms, indicating conservation of the functional role of LAPs in UVR tolerance.