Exploring the onset of B₁₂ -based mutualisms using a recently evolved Chlamydomonas auxotroph and B₁₂ -producing bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Cobalamin (vitamin B₁₂ ) is a cofactor for essential metabolic reactions in multiple eukaryotic taxa, including major primary producers such as algae, and yet only prokaryotes can produce it. Many bacteria can colonize the algal phycosphere, forming stable communities that gain preferential access to photosynthate and in return provide compounds such as B₁₂ . Extended coexistence can then drive gene loss, leading to greater algal-bacterial interdependence. In this study, we investigate how a recently evolved B₁₂ -dependent strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, metE7, forms a mutualism with certain bacteria, including the rhizobium Mesorhizobium loti and even a strain of the gut bacterium E. coli engineered to produce cobalamin. Although metE7 was supported b

SUBMITTER: Bunbury F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9545926 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature