Mutation of sepJ reduces the intercellular signal range of a hetN-dependent paracrine signal, but not of a patS-dependent signal, in the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120

Formation and maintenance of a periodic pattern of nitrogen-fixing cells called heterocysts by the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 is dependent on regulators encoded by patS and hetN. In this study, genetic mosaic filaments that consisted of cells engineered to produce one of the developmental regulators flanked by target cells capable of reporting the activity of the developmental regulator were used to investigate the intercellular movement of patS- and hetN-dependent activity. We provide evidence that hetN encodes a paracrine signal with a signal range of several cells. The signal that moved between cells did not include the C-terminus of the annotated HetN protein as indicated by similar signal ranges from source cells expressing either hetN-YFP or hetN alone, despite a lack of intercellular exchange of the HetN-YFP fusion protein. Deletion of sepJ, which has been shown to encode a component of intercellular channels, caused a significant decrease in the signal range of hetN expressed from source cells but not of patS. These results are consistent with symplastic transport of a paracrine hetN-dependent signal between vegetative cells of Anabaena.