Intercellular communication in the fern endosymbiotic cyanobacterium <i>Nostoc azollae</i>.

ABSTRACT: The water fern Azolla spp. harbors as an endobiont the N₂-fixing, filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium Nostoc azollae. N. azollae provides the fern with fixed nitrogen permitting its growth in nitrogen-poor environments. In the diazotrophic filaments of heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria, intercellular molecular exchange occurs in which heterocysts provide vegetative cells with fixed nitrogen and vegetative cells provide heterocysts with reduced carbon. Intercellular molecular exchange takes place by diffusion through septal junctions and can be probed by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analysis with fluorescent markers such as calcein and 5-carboxyfluorescein. The septal junctions traverse the septal peptidoglycan (PG) through nanopores t

SUBMITTER: Sarasa-Buisan C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12421839 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature