Discovery of nondiazotrophic Trichodesmium species abundant and widespread in the open ocean.

ABSTRACT: Filamentous and colony-forming cells within the cyanobacterial genus Trichodesmium might account for nearly half of nitrogen fixation in the sunlit ocean, a critical mechanism that sustains plankton's primary productivity. Trichodesmium has long been portrayed as a diazotrophic genus. By means of genome-resolved metagenomics, here we reveal that nondiazotrophic Trichodesmium species not only exist but also are abundant and widespread in the open ocean, benefiting from a previously overlooked functional lifestyle to expand the biogeography of this prominent marine genus. Near-complete environmental genomes for those closely related candidate species reproducibly shared functional features including a lack of genes related to nitrogen fixation, hydrogen recycling, and ho

SUBMITTER: Delmont TO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8609553 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature