IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms11071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cyanobacterial symbionts diverged in the late Cretaceous towards lineage-specific nitrogen fixation factories in single-celled phytoplankton

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco M. Cornejo-Castillo

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

  • Ana M. Cabello

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

  • Guillem Salazar

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

  • Patricia Sánchez-Baracaldo

    (School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol)

  • Gipsi Lima-Mendez

    (Rega Institute KU Leuven
    VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB
    Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Pascal Hingamp

    (Aix Marseille Université CNRS IGS UMR 7256)

  • Adriana Alberti

    (CEA-Institut de Génomique, Genoscope, Centre National de Séquençage)

  • Shinichi Sunagawa

    (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Structural and Computational Biology Unit)

  • Peer Bork

    (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Structural and Computational Biology Unit
    Max-Delbrück-Centre for Molecular Medicine)

  • Colomban de Vargas

    (CNRS, UMR 7144, Station Biologique de Roscoff
    Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 06, UMR 7144, Station Biologique de Roscoff)

  • Jeroen Raes

    (Rega Institute KU Leuven
    VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB
    Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Chris Bowler

    (Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), CNRS UMR 8197)

  • Patrick Wincker

    (CEA-Institut de Génomique, Genoscope, Centre National de Séquençage
    Université d’Evry, UMR 8030
    Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 8030)

  • Jonathan P. Zehr

    (University of California)

  • Josep M. Gasol

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

  • Ramon Massana

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

  • Silvia G. Acinas

    (Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), CSIC)

Abstract

The unicellular cyanobacterium UCYN-A, one of the major contributors to nitrogen fixation in the open ocean, lives in symbiosis with single-celled phytoplankton. UCYN-A includes several closely related lineages whose partner fidelity, genome-wide expression and time of evolutionary divergence remain to be resolved. Here we detect and distinguish UCYN-A1 and UCYN-A2 lineages in symbiosis with two distinct prymnesiophyte partners in the South Atlantic Ocean. Both symbiotic systems are lineage specific and differ in the number of UCYN-A cells involved. Our analyses infer a streamlined genome expression towards nitrogen fixation in both UCYN-A lineages. Comparative genomics reveal a strong purifying selection in UCYN-A1 and UCYN-A2 with a diversification process ∼91 Myr ago, in the late Cretaceous, after the low-nutrient regime period occurred during the Jurassic. These findings suggest that UCYN-A diversified in a co-evolutionary process, wherein their prymnesiophyte partners acted as a barrier driving an allopatric speciation of extant UCYN-A lineages.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco M. Cornejo-Castillo & Ana M. Cabello & Guillem Salazar & Patricia Sánchez-Baracaldo & Gipsi Lima-Mendez & Pascal Hingamp & Adriana Alberti & Shinichi Sunagawa & Peer Bork & Colomban de Varga, 2016. "Cyanobacterial symbionts diverged in the late Cretaceous towards lineage-specific nitrogen fixation factories in single-celled phytoplankton," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11071
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11071
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms11071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christopher R. Schvarcz & Samuel T. Wilson & Mathieu Caffin & Rosalina Stancheva & Qian Li & Kendra A. Turk-Kubo & Angelicque E. White & David M. Karl & Jonathan P. Zehr & Grieg F. Steward, 2022. "Overlooked and widespread pennate diatom-diazotroph symbioses in the sea," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.