Heat-surviving cyanobacteria switch to respiration when photosynthesis falters, 48-hour test reveals

A new study challenges a long-standing assumption about how cyanobacteria survive environmental stress. The study, led by researchers at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR)—the Kinneret Limnological Institute (KLI), shows that survival under prolonged heat stress is not determined solely by the ability to protect photosynthesis. Instead, survival may depend on a remarkable shift in cellular energy balance, with dark respiration compensating when photosynthetic electron transport becomes impaired.