Philippi, Miriam and Kitzinger, Katharina and Berg, Jasmine S. and Tschitschko, Bernhard and Kidane, Abiel T. and Littmann, Sten and Marchant, Hannah K. and Storelli, Nicola and Winkel, Lenny H. E. and Schubert, Carsten J. and Mohr, Wiebke and Kuypers, Marcel M. M. (2021) Purple sulfur bacteria fix N2 via molybdenum-nitrogenase in a low molybdenum Proterozoic ocean analogue. Nature Communications, 12 (1). ISSN 2041-1723
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Biological N2 fixation was key to the expansion of life on early Earth. The N2-fixing microorganisms and the nitrogenase type used in the Proterozoic are unknown, although it has been proposed that the canonical molybdenum-nitrogenase was not used due to low molybdenum availability. We investigate N2 fixation in Lake Cadagno, an analogue system to the sulfidic Proterozoic continental margins, using a combination of biogeochemical, molecular and single cell techniques. In Lake Cadagno, purple sulfur bacteria (PSB) are responsible for high N2 fixation rates, to our knowledge providing the first direct evidence for PSB in situ N2 fixation. Surprisingly, no alternative nitrogenases are detectable, and N2 fixation is exclusively catalyzed by molybdenum-nitrogenase. Our results show that molybdenum-nitrogenase is functional at low molybdenum conditions in situ and that in contrast to previous beliefs, PSB may have driven N2 fixation in the Proterozoic ocean.
| Item Type: | Scientific journal article, Newspaper article or Magazine article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Biological Sciences > Biology > Environmental biology Biological Sciences > Biology > Ecology Biological Sciences > Microbiology |
| Department/unit: | Dipartimento ambiente costruzioni e design > Istituto microbiologia |
| Depositing User: | Nicola Storelli |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Nov 2021 15:06 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Nov 2021 15:06 |
| URI: | http://repository.supsi.ch/id/eprint/13018 |
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