Overlooked and widespread pennate diatom-diazotroph symbioses in the sea
Christopher R. Schvarcz (),
Samuel T. Wilson,
Mathieu Caffin,
Rosalina Stancheva,
Qian Li,
Kendra A. Turk-Kubo,
Angelicque E. White,
David M. Karl,
Jonathan P. Zehr and
Grieg F. Steward
Additional contact information
Christopher R. Schvarcz: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Samuel T. Wilson: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Mathieu Caffin: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Rosalina Stancheva: California State University San Marcos
Qian Li: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Kendra A. Turk-Kubo: University of California
Angelicque E. White: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
David M. Karl: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Jonathan P. Zehr: University of California
Grieg F. Steward: University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9
Abstract:
Abstract Persistent nitrogen depletion in sunlit open ocean waters provides a favorable ecological niche for nitrogen-fixing (diazotrophic) cyanobacteria, some of which associate symbiotically with eukaryotic algae. All known marine examples of these symbioses have involved either centric diatom or haptophyte hosts. We report here the discovery and characterization of two distinct marine pennate diatom-diazotroph symbioses, which until now had only been observed in freshwater environments. Rhopalodiaceae diatoms Epithemia pelagica sp. nov. and Epithemia catenata sp. nov. were isolated repeatedly from the subtropical North Pacific Ocean, and analysis of sequence libraries reveals a global distribution. These symbioses likely escaped attention because the endosymbionts lack fluorescent photopigments, have nifH gene sequences similar to those of free-living unicellular cyanobacteria, and are lost in nitrogen-replete medium. Marine Rhopalodiaceae-diazotroph symbioses are a previously overlooked but widespread source of bioavailable nitrogen in marine habitats and provide new, easily cultured model organisms for the study of organelle evolution.
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28065-6 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28065-6
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28065-6
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().