Direct Visualization of the Multicopy Chromosomes in Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic organisms that carry out oxygenic photosynthesis. The fresh water cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 is a model organism for the study of photosynthesis and gene regulation, and for biotechnological applications. Besides several freshwater cyanobacteria, S. elongatus 7942 also contains multiple chromosomal copies per cell at all stages of its cell cycle. Here, we describe a method for the direct visualization of multicopy chromosomes in S. elongatus 7942 by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).