Role of cyclic nucleotides in Haloferax volcanii

Euryarchaeal genomes encode di-adeylate cyclases (DacZ). We showed that H. volcanii produces c-di-AMP and that under the tested laboratory conditions it is essential as we could not delete the gene encoding dacZ.

A mutant which expressed lower amounts of dacZ showed no changes in growth in normal conditions, but in low salt conditions the cells became large and could obviously not control their cell volume. Therefore we hypothesize, that in H.volcanii the c-di-AMP levels are important to control osmohomeostasis.

Paper:

Braun F, Thomalla L, van der Does C, Quax TEF, Allers T, Kaever V, Albers SV. (2019) Cyclic nucleotides in archaea: Cyclic di-AMP in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii and its putative role.

Microbiologyopen. 8(9):e00829. doi: 10.1002/mbo3.829. Epub 2019 Mar 18.