Pubblicazione scientifica

Chemosynthetic symbionts of marine invertebrate animals are capable of nitrogen fixation

FILONE TECNOLOGICO	TEMA
economia circolare e sostenibilità
trasformazione e commercializzazione

RIASSUNTO

Chemosynthetic symbioses are partnerships between invertebrate animals and chemosynthetic bacteria. The latter are the primary producers, providing most of the organic carbon needed for the animal host's nutrition. We sequenced genomes of the chemosynthetic symbionts from the lucinid bivalve Loripes lucinalis and the stilbonematid nematode Laxus oneistus. The symbionts of both host species encoded nitrogen fixation genes. This is remarkable as no marine chemosynthetic symbiont was previously known to be capable of nitrogen fixation. We detected nitrogenase expression by the symbionts of lucinid clams at the transcriptomic and proteomic level. Mean stable nitrogen isotope values of Loripes lucinalis were within the range expected for fixed atmospheric nitrogen, further suggesting active nitrogen fixation by the symbionts. The ability to fix nitrogen may be widespread among chemosynthetic symbioses in oligotrophic habitats, where nitrogen availability often limits primary productivity.

Supplementary information

The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.195) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

DATA

Data di pubblicazione: 24/10/2016

AUTORI

PETERSEN JILLIAN M
KEMPER ANNA
GRUBER-VODICKA HARALD
CARDINI ULISSE
VAN DER GEEST MATTHIJS
KLEINER MANUEL
BULGHERESI SILVIA
MUSSMANN MARC
HERBOLD CRAIG
SEAH BRANDON KB
ANTONY CHAKKIATH PAUL
LIU DAN
BELITZ ALEXANDRA
WEBER MIRIAM

RIVISTA

Nature Microbiology, 2(1), 16195

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