Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 September 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5844, pp. 1563 - 1566
DOI: 10.1126/science.1145557
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Quantitative Imaging of Nitrogen Fixation by Individual Bacteria Within Animal Cells

Claude P. Lechene,1* Yvette Luyten,2{dagger} Gregory McMahon,1 Daniel L. Distel2*

Biological nitrogen fixation, the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia for biosynthesis, is exclusively performed by a few bacteria and archaea. Despite the essential importance of biological nitrogen fixation, it has been impossible to quantify the incorporation of nitrogen by individual bacteria or to map the fate of fixed nitrogen in host cells. In this study, with multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry we directly imaged and measured nitrogen fixation by individual bacteria within eukaryotic host cells and demonstrated that fixed nitrogen is used for host metabolism. This approach introduces a powerful way to study microbes and global nutrient cycles.

1 National Resource for Imaging Mass Spectrometry, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, 65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Ocean Genome Legacy, Center for Marine Genomic Research, 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938-2723, USA.

{dagger} Present address: New England Biolabs, 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938-2723, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cpl{at}harvard.edu (C.P.L.); distel{at}oglf.org (D.L.D.)

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Fantastic Fixers.
R. W. Fulweiler (2009)
Science 326, 377-378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Deep-Sea Archaea Fix and Share Nitrogen in Methane-Consuming Microbial Consortia.
A. E. Dekas, R. S. Poretsky, and V. J. Orphan (2009)
Science 326, 422-426
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Uncultivated Bacteria as Etiologic Agents of Intra-Amniotic Inflammation Leading to Preterm Birth.
Y. W. Han, T. Shen, P. Chung, I. A. Buhimschi, and C. S. Buhimschi (2009)
J. Clin. Microbiol. 47, 38-47
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A single-cell view on the ecophysiology of anaerobic phototrophic bacteria.
N. Musat, H. Halm, B. Winterholler, P. Hoppe, S. Peduzzi, F. Hillion, F. Horreard, R. Amann, B. B. Jorgensen, and M. M. M. Kuypers (2008)
PNAS 105, 17861-17866
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)