Critical Role of Light in the Growth and Activity of the Marine N-Fixing UCYN-A Symbiosis

Overview

Journal Front Microbiol

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2021 May 24

PMID 34025621

Citations 5

Authors

Marine Landa

Kendra A Turk-Kubo

Francisco M Cornejo-Castillo

Britt A Henke

Jonathan P Zehr

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The unicellular N-fixing cyanobacteria UCYN-A live in symbiosis with haptophytes in the lineage. Maintaining N-fixing symbioses between two unicellular partners requires tight coordination of multiple biological processes including cell growth and division and, in the case of the UCYN-A symbiosis, N fixation of the symbiont and photosynthesis of the host. In this system, it is thought that the host photosynthesis supports the high energetic cost of N fixation, and both processes occur during the light period. However, information on this coordination is very limited and difficult to obtain because the UCYN-A symbiosis has yet to be available in culture. Natural populations containing the UCYN-A2 symbiosis were manipulated to explore the effects of alterations of regular light and dark periods and inhibition of host photosynthesis on N fixation (single cell N fixation rates), gene transcription, and UCYN-A2 cell division (fluorescent hybridization and gene abundances). The results showed that the light period is critical for maintenance of regular patterns of gene expression, N fixation and symbiont replication and cell division. This study suggests a crucial role for the host as a producer of fixed carbon, rather than light itself, in the regulation and implementation of these cellular processes in UCYN-A.

Citing Articles

Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal a non-canonical model of organellogenesis.

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Phagotrophy in the nitrogen-fixing haptophyte Braarudosphaera bigelowii.

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Microevolutionary patterns in ecotypes of the symbiotic cyanobacterium UCYN-A revealed from a Northwest Atlantic coastal time series.

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PMID: 37774025 PMC: 10541017. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh9768.

Open ocean and coastal strains of the N2-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A have distinct transcriptomes.

Del Carmen Munoz-Marin M, Magasin J, Zehr J PLoS One. 2023; 18(5):e0272674.

PMID: 37130101 PMC: 10153697. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272674.

Non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs: global diversity, distribution, ecophysiology, and activity in marine waters.

Turk-Kubo K, Gradoville M, Cheung S, Cornejo-Castillo F, Harding K, Morando M FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2022; 47(6).

PMID: 36416813 PMC: 10719068. DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fuac046.

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