THE PHYLOGENETIC RECONSTRUCTION OF BIOSYNTHESIZING GENES FROM CYANOBACTERIA ISOLATED FROM ZIARAT WATERFALL OF GOLESTAN PROVINCE

Cyanobacteria are anaerobic and photosynthesizing prokaryotes. In the past, the classification of cyanobacteria was only based on morphological characteristics. Today, advanced techniques such as molecular markers are used to achieve more accurate and reliable classification. In this research, sampling was done from the Ziarat waterfall in Golestan province. After cultivation and purification in solid culture medium BG-11, molecular identification of natural compounds’ biosynthesizing genes (hassallidins synthetase (hasN) and geosmin A (geoA) along with divergence analyses were performed using the amplification of the chloroplast genes RNA polymerase C1 (rpoC1). Then, the strain containing the above genes was identified by amplification of 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genes. Phylogenetic trees were built using the Maximum Likelihood method and the appropriate model with the help of a web server on the IQ-Tree server. The secondary structure of ITS was drawn in different parts of helix D1-D1′, D2, D3, tRNAIle, tRNAAla, BOX B, BOX A, and V3 using the Mfold program. The results showed that only the Nodosilinea sp. 1359 (Leptolyngbyaceae, Synechococcales) strain has the genes mentioned above. In addition, the results of calculating the KA/KS of hasN and geoA genes and the phylogenetic incongruence of 16S rRNA and rpoC1 genes showed that natural selection by creating positive mutations has led to diversity in the studied strain. This study is among the first research conducted on the molecular phylogeny of cyanobacteria producing natural compounds in Ziarat waterfall.