Trichodesmium thiebautii

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Classification

Higher order taxa

Bacteria; Cyanobacteria; Cyanophyceae; Oscillatoriales; Microcoleaceae; Trichodesmium

Species

Trichodesmium thiebautii

Description and Significance

Trichodesmium thiebautii was named and first described by M. Gomont in a paper published in 1892 (1). T. thiebautii is a gram-negative, coccus shaped marine cyanobacteria. T. thiebautii prefers warmer temperatures and has been found in tropical and subtropical oceans (9). T. thiebautii has been hard to study and does not have extensive research. Maintaining living cultures has been difficult. The longest any culture has survived is three months (5). T. thiebautii forms colonies. They have been found in the shape of fusiform and radial colonies. Fusiform colonies are the most abundant type. The T. thiebautii fusiform colonies are twisted like a rope (4). T. thiebautii has non-constricted trichomes surrounding the outside of its cell. The morphology of trichomes is similar within a colony, but varies between each different, separate colony (4,9). T. thiebautii are non-heterocystous and fix nitrogen gas. It fixes nitrogen gas during the day, which is unlike other cyanobacteria (3).

Genome and genetics

T. thiebautii’s genome has been sequenced using whole genome shotgun sequencing. The whole genome shotgun sequence can be found on the National Center for Biotechnology Information website with the following link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/LAMW01000047.1. The total length of its genome is about 3.29 Mb with 35.4 %GC (15). It consists of about 39,217 base pairs (13). T. thiebautii has 3,370 genes (14). An important gene that T. thiebautii have are nifH genes. These genes are incredibly important because they produce nitrogen fixation proteins (nifH) (16). T. thiebautii belong to the bacteria branch of prokaryotes (6). The genus that Trichodesmium, including T. thiebautii, are most closely related to are Oscillatoria sancta PCC 7515 (6). All of the species within the Trichodesmium genus are closely related. The species that is the most genetically different from T. thiebautii and the others is T. erythraeum. There are two different clades of Trichodesmium species. One clade includes T. thiebautii, along with T. tenue, T. hildebrandtii, and K. spiralis. The other clade only includes T. erythraeum (11).

Nutrition and metabolism

a.Describe the growth characteristics of your bacterial species; sources of C, N, electrons; respires/ferments, uses O2, etc.

b.What kinds of culture conditions (temp, pH, media) are needed for laboratory study?

c.What kinds of waste, by-products, volatile compounds are generated?

Ecology / Pathology

Ecology: How is your microorganism important in the ecosystem where it is found? How does it impact other organisms in the environment (could be positive or negative impact)?

Pathology: How does the microbe cause disease as it interacts with the host? Describe any specific toxins or pathways that are used for invading and causing disease in the host. What treatment is used to inhibit or kill the microbe?

Current Research

Describe recent research and findings that have been done with this organism. The research can be clinical, applied or basic research. This section should be based on 2 recent papers (10 years or less) and summarized in your own words.

References

1. Bergman, B., Carpenter, E. J., Larsson, J., Lin, S., Sandh, G. “Trichodesmium – a widespread marine cyanobacterium with unusual nitrogen fixation properties”. FEMS Microbial Rev. 2013 May; 37(3): 286-302 [PubMed] 2. Capone, D. G., Ferrier, M. D., Carpenter, E. J. “Amino Acid Cycling in Colonies of the Planktonic Marine Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium thiebautii”. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Nov. 1994, p. 3989-3995. 3. Carpenter, E. J., McCarthy, J. J., Rueter, J. G. 1979. “The toxic effect of copper on Oscillatoria (Trichodesmium) theibautii”. Limnol. Oceanogr., 24(3):558-562. 4. Carpenter, E. J., Capone, D. G., Rueter, J. G. “Marine Pelagic Cyanobacteria: Trichodesmium and other Diazotrophs”. 1991. NATO ASI Series. Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences – Vol. 362. 5. Monteiro, J., Leca, E., Koening, M., Macedo, S. “New record of Trichodesmium thiebautii Gomont ex Gomont (Oscillatoriales – Cyanophyta) for the continental shelf of northeastern Brazil”. Acta Bot. Bras. vol.24 no.4 Feira de Santana Oct./Dec. 2010

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Authored by [student name], a student of CJ Funk at John Brown University