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

ABSTRACT: Decades of research on marine N2 fixation focused on Trichodesmium, which are generally free-living cyanobacteria, but in recent years the endosymbiotic cyanobacterium Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa (UCYN-A) has received increasing attention. However, few studies have shed light on the influence of the host versus the habitat on UCYN-A N2 fixation and overall metabolism. Here we compared transcriptomes from natural populations of UCYN-A from oligotrophic open-ocean versus nutrient-rich coastal waters, using a microarray that targets the full genomes of UCYN-A1 and UCYN-A2 and known genes for UCYN-A3. We found that UCYN-A2, usually regarded as adapted to coastal environments, was transcriptionally very active in the open ocean and appeared to be less impacted by habitat change than

SUBMITTER: Munoz-Marin MDC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10153697 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature