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Rhizobia–diatom symbiosis fixes missing nitrogen in the ocean
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Journal Article
Rhizobia–diatom symbiosis fixes missing nitrogen in the ocean
2024
Overview
Nitrogen (N
2
) fixation in oligotrophic surface waters is the main source of new nitrogen to the ocean
1
and has a key role in fuelling the biological carbon pump
2
. Oceanic N
2
fixation has been attributed almost exclusively to cyanobacteria, even though genes encoding nitrogenase, the enzyme that fixes N
2
into ammonia, are widespread among marine bacteria and archaea
3
–
5
. Little is known about these non-cyanobacterial N
2
fixers, and direct proof that they can fix nitrogen in the ocean has so far been lacking. Here we report the discovery of a non-cyanobacterial N
2
-fixing symbiont, ‘
Candidatus
Tectiglobus diatomicola’, which provides its diatom host with fixed nitrogen in return for photosynthetic carbon. The N
2
-fixing symbiont belongs to the order Rhizobiales and its association with a unicellular diatom expands the known hosts for this order beyond the well-known N
2
-fixing rhizobia–legume symbioses on land
6
. Our results show that the rhizobia–diatom symbioses can contribute as much fixed nitrogen as can cyanobacterial N
2
fixers in the tropical North Atlantic, and that they might be responsible for N
2
fixation in the vast regions of the ocean in which cyanobacteria are too rare to account for the measured rates.
A symbiosis between a diatom and a newly discovered species of alphaproteobacteria, ‘
Candidatus
Tectiglobus diatomicola’, can fix nitrogen in the ocean, providing evidence that nitrogen fixers other than cyanobacteria have a key role in the marine environment.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
