| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- del Carmen Munoz-Marin, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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The Transcriptional Cycle Is Suited to Daytime N2 Fixation in the Unicellular Cyanobacterium “Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa” (UCYN-A)
- 2019
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Ingår i: mBio. - : American Society of Microbiology. - 2161-2129 .- 2150-7511. ; 10:1, s. 1-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Symbiosis between a marine alga and a N-2-fixing cyanobacterium (Cyanobacterium UCYN-A) is geographically widespread in the oceans and is important in the marine N cycle. UCYN-A is uncultivated and is an unusual unicellular cyanobacterium because it lacks many metabolic functions, including oxygenic photosynthesis and carbon fixation, which are typical in cyanobacteria. It is now presumed to be an obligate symbiont of haptophytes closely related to Braarudosphaera bigelowii. N-2-fixing cyanobacteria use different strategies to avoid inhibition of N-2 fixation by the oxygen evolved in photosynthesis. Most unicellular cyanobacteria temporally separate the two incompatible activities by fixing N-2 only at night, but, surprisingly, UCYN-A appears to fix N-2 during the day. The goal of this study was to determine how the unicellular UCYN-A strain coordinates N-2 fixation and general metabolism compared to other marine cyanobacteria. We found that UCYN-A has distinct daily cycles of many genes despite the fact that it lacks two of the three circadian clock genes found in most cyanobacteria. We also found that the transcription patterns in UCYN-A are more similar to those in marine cyanobacteria that are capable of aerobic N-2 fixation in the light, such as Trichodesmium and heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria, than to those in Crocosphaera or Cyanothece species, which are more closely related to unicellular marine cyanobacteria evolutionarily. Our findings suggest that the symbiotic interaction has resulted in a shift of transcriptional regulation to coordinate UCYN-A metabolism with that of the phototrophic eukaryotic host, thus allowing efficient coupling of N-2 fixation (by the cyanobacterium) to the energy obtained from photosynthesis (by the eukaryotic unicellular alga) in the light. IMPORTANCE The symbiotic N-2-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A, which is closely related to Braarudosphaera bigelowii, and its eukaryotic algal host have been shown to be globally distributed and important in open-ocean N-2 fixation. These unique cyanobacteria have reduced metabolic capabilities, even lacking genes for oxygenic photosynthesis and carbon fixation. Cyanobacteria generally use energy from photosynthesis for nitrogen fixation but require mechanisms for avoiding inactivation of the oxygen-sensitive nitrogenase enzyme by ambient oxygen (O-2) or the O-2 evolved through photosynthesis. This study showed that symbiosis between the N-2-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A and its eukaryotic algal host has led to adaptation of its daily gene expression pattern in order to enable daytime aerobic N-2 fixation, which is likely more energetically efficient than fixing N-2 at night, as found in other unicellular marine cyanobacteria.
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| 4. |
- Cornejo-Castillo, Francisco M., et al.
(författare)
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UCYN-A3, a newly characterized open ocean sublineage of the symbiotic N2-fixing cyanobacterium Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Microbiology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1462-2912 .- 1462-2920. ; 21:1, s. 111-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The symbiotic unicellular cyanobacterium Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa (UCYN-A) is one of the most abundant and widespread nitrogen (N-2)-fixing cyanobacteria in the ocean. Although it remains uncultivated, multiple sublineages have been detected based on partial nitrogenase (nifH) gene sequences, including the four most commonly detected sublineages UCYN-A1, UCYN-A2, UCYN-A3 and UCYN-A4. However, very little is known about UCYN-A3 beyond the nifH sequences from nifH gene diversity surveys. In this study, single cell sorting, DNA sequencing, qPCR and CARD-FISH assays revealed discrepancies involving the identification of sublineages, which led to new information on the diversity of the UCYN-A symbiosis. 16S rRNA and nifH gene sequencing on single sorted cells allowed us to identify the 16S rRNA gene of the uncharacterized UCYN-A3 sublineage. We designed new CARD-FISH probes that allowed us to distinguish and observe UCYN-A2 in a coastal location (SIO Pier; San Diego) and UCYN-A3 in an open ocean location (Station ALOHA; Hawaii). Moreover, we reconstructed about 13% of the UCYN-A3 genome from Tara Oceans metagenomic data. Finally, our findings unveil the UCYN-A3 symbiosis in open ocean waters suggesting that the different UCYN-A sublineages are distributed along different size fractions of the plankton defined by the cell-size ranges of their prymnesiophyte hosts.
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| 5. |
- Farnelid, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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New insights into the ecology of the globally significant uncultured nitrogen-fixing symbiont UCYN-A
- 2016
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Ingår i: Aquatic Microbial Ecology. - : Inter-Research Science Center. - 0948-3055 .- 1616-1564. ; 77:3, s. 125-138
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cyanobacterial nitrogen-fixers (diazotrophs) play a key role in biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the ocean. In recent years, the unusual symbiotic diazotrophic cyanobacterium Atelocyanobacterium thalassa (UCYN-A) has been recognized as one of the major diazotrophs in the tropical and subtropical oceans. In this review, we summarize what is currently known about the geographic distribution of UCYN-A, as well as the environmental factors that govern its distribution. In addition, by compiling UCYN-A nifH sequences from the GenBank no. database as well as those from nifH gene amplicon next generation sequencing studies, we present an in-depth analysis of the distribution of defined UCYN-A sublineages (UCYN-A1, UCYN-A2 and UCYN-A3) and identify a novel sublineage, UCYN-A4, which may be significant in some environments. Each UCYN-A sublineage exhibited a remarkable global distribution pattern and several UCYN-A sublineages frequently co-occurred within the same sample, suggesting that if they represent different ecotypes they have overlapping niches. Recently, single cell visualization techniques using specific probes targeting UCYN-A1 and UCYN-A2 and their respective associated eukaryotic partner cells showed that the size of the consortia and the number of UCYN-A cells differed between these 2 sublineages. Combined, the results highlight that UCYN-A sublineages likely have different physiological requirements, which need to be accounted for in future studies. Furthermore, based on our increasing knowledge of the diversity of the UCYN-A lineage, we discuss some of the limitations of currently used cultivation-independent molecular techniques for the identification and quantification of UCYN-A.
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| 6. |
- Zehr, Jonathan P., et al.
(författare)
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Unusual marine unicellular symbiosis with the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium UCYN-A
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nature Microbiology. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2058-5276. ; 2:1, s. 1-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nitrogen fixation — the reduction of dinitrogen (N2) gas to biologically available nitrogen (N) — is an important source of N for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In terrestrial environments, N2-fixing symbioses involve multicellular plants, but in the marine environment these symbioses occur with unicellular planktonic algae. An unusual symbiosis between an uncultivated unicellular cyanobacterium (UCYN-A) and a haptophyte picoplankton alga was recently discovered in oligotrophic oceans. UCYN-A has a highly reduced genome, and exchanges fixed N for fixed carbon with its host. This symbiosis bears some resemblance to symbioses found in freshwater ecosystems. UCYN-A shares many core genes with the ‘spheroid bodies’ of Epithemia turgida and the endosymbionts of the amoeba Paulinella chromatophora. UCYN-A is widely distributed, and has diversified into a number of sublineages that could be ecotypes. Many questions remain regarding the physical and genetic mechanisms of the association, but UCYN-A is an intriguing model for contemplating the evolution of N2-fixing organelles.
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| 7. |
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