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Trichodesmium – a widespread marine cyanobacterium with unusual nitrogen fixation properties

  1. Birgitta Bergman1,*,
  2. Gustaf Sandh1,†,
  3. Senjie Lin2,
  4. John Larsson1,
  5. Edward J. Carpenter3

Article first published online: 20 SEP 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2012.00352.x

Issue

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Special Issue: Molecular Insights into Environmental Microbes

Volume 37, Issue 3, pages 286–302, May 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Bergman, B., Sandh, G., Lin, S., Larsson, J. and Carpenter, E. J. (2013), Trichodesmium – a widespread marine cyanobacterium with unusual nitrogen fixation properties. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 37: 286–302. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2012.00352.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Botany, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

  2. 2

    Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT, USA

  3. 3

    Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University, Tiburon, CA, USA

  1. †

    Department of Chemistry – Ångström, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

*Correspondence: Birgitta Bergman, Department of Botany, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 706441305; fax: +46 816 5525; e-mail: bergmanb@botan.su.se

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 APR 2013
  2. Article first published online: 20 SEP 2012
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 28 AUG 2012 07:48AM EST
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 21 AUG 2012
  5. Manuscript Revised: 13 AUG 2012
  6. Manuscript Received: 20 APR 2012

Funded by

  • Swedish Research Council
  • The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT)
  • SIDA/SAREC and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
  • the US National Science Foundation. Grant Numbers: OCE-0934035, EF-0629624

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Keywords:

  • cyanobacteria;
  • N2 fixation;
  • genome evolution;
  • diazocytes;
  • adaptation;
  • nutrient stress

Abstract

The last several decades have witnessed dramatic advances in unfolding the diversity and commonality of oceanic diazotrophs and their N2-fixing potential. More recently, substantial progress in diazotrophic cell biology has provided a wealth of information on processes and mechanisms involved. The substantial contribution by the diazotrophic cyanobacterial genus Trichodesmium to the nitrogen influx of the global marine ecosystem is by now undisputable and of paramount ecological importance, while the underlying cellular and molecular regulatory physiology has only recently started to unfold. Here, we explore and summarize current knowledge, related to the optimization of its diazotrophic capacity, from genomics to ecophysiological processes, via, for example, cellular differentiation (diazocytes) and temporal regulations, and suggest cellular research avenues that now ought to be explored.

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