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# Nitrogen Fixation in Ocean Algae: A New Discovery

## Introduction to Nitrogen Harvesting in Eukaryotes

It’s time to welcome a new type of cell to the club of living things that can harvest nitrogen from the atmosphere. Until now, the only life forms thought to pull nitrogen from the air and turn it into a biologically useful form were bacteria and archaea. But the discovery of a special ammonia factory inside a single-celled ocean alga adds eukaryotes — organisms with membrane-bound structures called organelles — to the list, researchers report in the April 12 *Science*.

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## Evolution of Nitrogen Harvesting Mechanisms

That factory, the scientists say, was once a bacterium that started living inside the alga about 100 million years ago and has since evolved into a nitrogen-harvesting machine for its host. Once a symbiont, it’s now one of the cell’s many organelles.

Nitrogen fixation, where atmospheric nitrogen gas is converted into ammonia, is an important process for life. Organisms require access to nitrogen-containing compounds to synthesize essential biochemicals. The bacteria and archaea that have this ability often work their gas-refining in soil or in aquatic environments like the ocean.

## Nitroplast: A Unique Evolutionary Pathway

One such bacterium, dubbed UCYN-A, is widely distributed in the world’s oceans and is important to oceanic nitrogen fixation. These bacteria are also known to be symbionts living within the unicellular algae *Braarudosphaera bigelowii* and its relatives.

However, the line between symbiont and organelle can be fuzzy. Zehr and colleagues set out to better understand where UCYN-A falls on that spectrum.

Using X-ray imaging, the team first learned that when the algal cells divide, all its organelles arrange themselves in a line and take turns dividing in a well-defined sequence. “This symbiont participates in that sequence,” says marine biologist Tyler Coale, also of UC Santa Cruz. “It’s somehow getting the cue to divide right on time with the other organelles.”

## Genetic Insights into Symbiotic Evolution

Next, the researchers analyzed the full sets of genetic instructions and proteins — the genomes and proteomes — made by the algae and the UCYN-A symbionts. “About half of the proteins that are physically present inside this symbiont are derived from the host genome,” Coale says. These supplemental proteins appear to fill gaps in the bacterium’s crucial metabolic pathways, suggesting it relies on the algal cell’s proteins to function.

### Conclusion and Future Implications

The nitroplast is one of just four known instances of symbiotic microbes evolving into cogs in a host’s cellular machinery. In particular, chloroplasts and mitochondria evolved from microbial symbionts as much as 2 billion years ago. Previous research on the evolutionary history of UCYN-A showed its relationship with algae is far more recent — around 100 million years old.

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## Collaboration and Coevolution of Nitrogen-Harvesting Mechanisms

“The data clearly show that the two cells have been coevolving for some time,” says Archibald, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The researchers argue that all these features show UCYN-A isn’t merely a symbiont but has evolved into an organelle: the nitroplast.

“If genes are targeted and their proteins are imported into these organelles, then their genomes are free to lose those genes,” Coale says. “Maybe this is the mechanism by which symbionts are domesticated.”

By using sophisticated imaging techniques and genetic analysis, the study sheds light on the intricate relationship between symbiotic microbes and their host cells. The evolution of UCYN-A into a fully integrated organelle provides valuable insights into the coevolution and adaptation of organisms in complex biological systems.

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