Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa

Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa
Scientific classification
Domain: Bacteria
Kingdom: Bacillati
Phylum: Cyanobacteriota
Class: Cyanophyceae
Order: Chroococcales
Genus: Ca. Atelocyanobacterium
Species:
Ca. Atelocyanobacterium thalassa
Binomial name
Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa
Thompson et al., 2012[1]
Synonyms
  • UCYN-A

Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa, also referred to as UCYN-A, is a nitrogen-fixing species of cyanobacteria commonly found in measurable quantities throughout the world's oceans and some seas.[1][2] Members of A. thalassa are spheroid in shape and are 1-2 μm in diameter,[3] and provide nitrogen to ocean regions by fixing non biologically available atmospheric nitrogen into biologically available ammonium that other marine microorganisms can use.[1]

Unlike many other cyanobacteria, the genome of A. thalassa does not contain genes for RuBisCO, photosystem II, or the TCA cycle.[4] Consequently, A. thalassa lacks the ability to fix carbon via photosynthesis. Some genes specific to the cyanobacteria group are also absent from the A. thalassa genome despite being an evolutionary descendant of this group.[4] With the inability to fix their own carbon, A. thalassa are obligate symbionts that have been found within photosynthetic picoeukaryote algae.[4]

Most notably, the UCYN-A2 sublineage has been observed as an endosymbiont in the alga Braarudosphaera bigelowii with a minimum of 1–2 endosymbionts per host.[1][5] A. thalassa fixes nitrogen for the algae, while the algae provide carbon for A. thalassa through photosynthesis.[6] In 2024, it was announced that Atelocyanobacterium thalassa living inside the alga Braarudosphaera bigelowii behave more like true organelles rather than distinct endosymbionts, and so they have been proposed to be called nitroplasts.[7][8] It is thought that A. thalassa could be used in future to genetically modify crops in order to improve their growth and yield.[8]

There are many sublineages of A. thalassa that are distributed across a wide range of marine environments and host organisms.[2] It appears that some sublineages of A. thalassa have a preference for oligotrophic ocean waters while other sublineages prefer coastal waters.[9] Much is still unknown about all of A. thalassa's hosts and host preferences.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e Thompson AW, Foster RA, Krupke A, Carter BJ, Musat N, Vaulot D, et al. (September 2012). "Unicellular cyanobacterium symbiotic with a single-celled eukaryotic alga". Science. 337 (6101): 1546–1550. Bibcode:2012Sci...337.1546T. doi:10.1126/science.1222700. PMID 22997339. S2CID 7071725.
  2. ^ a b Turk-Kubo KA, Farnelid HM, Shilova IN, Henke B, Zehr JP (April 2017). "Distinct ecological niches of marine symbiotic N2 -fixing cyanobacterium Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa sublineages". Journal of Phycology. 53 (2): 451–461. Bibcode:2017JPcgy..53..451T. doi:10.1111/jpy.12505. PMID 27992651. S2CID 36662899. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  3. ^ Hagino, Kyoko; Onuma, Ryo; Kawachi, Masanobu; Horiguchi, Takeo (4 December 2013). "Discovery of an Endosymbiotic Nitrogen-Fixing Cyanobacterium UCYN-A in Braarudosphaera bigelowii (Prymnesiophyceae)". PLOS ONE. 8 (12): e81749. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...881749H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081749. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3852252. PMID 24324722.
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Zehr_2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Thompson, Anne; Carter, Brandon J.; Turk-Kubo, Kendra; Malfatti, Francesca; Azam, Farooq; Zehr, Jonathan P. (October 2014). "Genetic diversity of the unicellular nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria UCYN-A and its prymnesiophyte host: UCYN-A genetic diversity" (PDF). Environmental Microbiology. 16 (10): 3238–3249. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12490. PMID 24761991. S2CID 24822220.
  6. ^ Stephens T (20 September 2012). "Unusual symbiosis discovered in marine microorganisms". University of California Santa Cruz Newscenter. Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  7. ^ Coale, Tyler H.; Loconte, Valentina; Turk-Kubo, Kendra A.; Vanslembrouck, Bieke; Mak, Wing Kwan Esther; Cheung, Shunyan; Ekman, Axel; Chen, Jian-Hua; Hagino, Kyoko; Takano, Yoshihito; Nishimura, Tomohiro; Adachi, Masao; Le Gros, Mark; Larabell, Carolyn; Zehr, Jonathan P. (12 April 2024). "Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga". Science. 384 (6692): 217–229. Bibcode:2024Sci...384..217C. doi:10.1126/science.adk1075. PMID 38603509.
  8. ^ a b Wong, Carissa (11 April 2024). "Scientists discover first algae that can fix nitrogen — thanks to a tiny cell structure". Nature. 628 (8009): 702. Bibcode:2024Natur.628..702W. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01046-z. PMID 38605201.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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