16S rDNA-based analysis reveals cosmopolitan occurrence but limited diversity of two cyanobacterial lineages with contrasted patterns of intracellular carbonate mineralization.

ABSTRACT: Cyanobacteria are mainly thought to induce carbonate precipitation extracellularly via their photosynthetic activity combined with the nucleation potential of exopolymeric substances. The discovery in microbialites of the alkaline lake Alchichica (Mexico) of Candidatus Gloeomargarita lithophora, a cyanobacterium forming large amounts of intracellular Mg-Ca-Sr-Ba carbonate spherules, showed that intracellular biomineralization in cyanobacteria is also possible. A second cyanobacterium isolated from the same environment, Candidatus Synechococcus calcipolaris G9, has been recently shown to also form intracellular calcium carbonates at the cell poles, a capability shared by all cultured species of the Thermosynechococcus clade, to which it belongs. To explore the diversity of these two distant

SUBMITTER: Ragon M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4085569 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature