Diversity of diazotrophic unicellular cyanobacteria in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean.

ABSTRACT: We present data on the genetic diversity and phylogenetic affinities of N2-fixing unicellular cyanobacteria in the plankton of the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Our dinitrogenase gene (nifH) sequences grouped together with a group of cyanobacteria from the subtropical North Pacific; another subtropical North Pacific group was only distantly related. Most of the 16S ribosomal DNA sequences from our tropical North Atlantic samples were closely allied with sequences from a symbiont of the diatom Climacodium frauenfeldianum. These findings suggest a complex pattern of evolutionary and ecological divergence among unicellular cyanobacteria within and between ocean basins.

SUBMITTER: Falcon LI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC129911 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature