Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Scott Miller
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Division of Biological Sciences
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Biological nitrogen (N) fixation involves the reduction of atmospheric N2 to biologically available ammonia (NH3) and is performed by a wide variety of prokaryotic microorganisms. Fixed N is often the limiting nutrient in ecosystems; therefore, microorganisms that can fix N2, such as some cyanobacteria, are an important source of biologically available N in N-limited habitats. Acaryochloris marina is a Chlorophyll d-producing cyanobacterium that lives attached to red algae or colonial ascidians along the intertidal zone of marine environments. Through comparative genomics, we recently found that an A. marina clade consisting of three strains – GR1, MU08, and MU09 – possesses the ~20 nif genes required to perform N fixation, while all other A. marina strains lack these genes; they appear to have been acquired by horizontal transfer. Here, I performed phylogenetic analyses on these A. marina nif genes as well as those of related organisms to identify the potential donor(s). My study informs our understanding of the horizontal transfer of genes responsible for an important biological process.
Category
Life Sciences
The Origin of Nitrogen Fixation Genes in Cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina
Biological nitrogen (N) fixation involves the reduction of atmospheric N2 to biologically available ammonia (NH3) and is performed by a wide variety of prokaryotic microorganisms. Fixed N is often the limiting nutrient in ecosystems; therefore, microorganisms that can fix N2, such as some cyanobacteria, are an important source of biologically available N in N-limited habitats. Acaryochloris marina is a Chlorophyll d-producing cyanobacterium that lives attached to red algae or colonial ascidians along the intertidal zone of marine environments. Through comparative genomics, we recently found that an A. marina clade consisting of three strains – GR1, MU08, and MU09 – possesses the ~20 nif genes required to perform N fixation, while all other A. marina strains lack these genes; they appear to have been acquired by horizontal transfer. Here, I performed phylogenetic analyses on these A. marina nif genes as well as those of related organisms to identify the potential donor(s). My study informs our understanding of the horizontal transfer of genes responsible for an important biological process.