Title | Unicellular cyanobacterium symbiotic with a single-celled eukaryotic alga |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2012 |
Authors | Thompson AW, Foster RA, Krupke A, Carter BJ, Musat N, Vaulot D, Kuypers MMM, Zehr JP |
Journal | Science |
Volume | 337 |
Pagination | 1546–1550 |
Keywords | 2012, MicroB3, rcc, SBR$_\textrmP$hyto$_\textrmD$PO, sbr?hyto$_\textrmd$ipo |
Abstract | Symbioses between nitrogen (N)2–fixing prokaryotes and photosynthetic eukaryotes are important for nitrogen acquisition in N-limited environments. Recently, a widely distributed planktonic uncultured nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium (UCYN-A) was found to have unprecedented genome reduction, including the lack of oxygen-evolving photosystem II and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which suggested partnership in a symbiosis. We showed that UCYN-A has a symbiotic association with a unicellular prymnesiophyte, closely related to calcifying taxa present in the fossil record. The partnership is mutualistic, because the prymnesiophyte receives fixed N in exchange for transferring fixed carbon to UCYN-A. This unusual partnership between a cyanobacterium and a unicellular alga is a model for symbiosis and is analogous to plastid and organismal evolution, and if calcifying, may have important implications for past and present oceanic N2 fixation. |
URL | http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6101/1546.abstract |
DOI | 10.1126/science.1222700 |