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Science 8 February 1985:
Vol. 227. no. 4687, pp. 647 - 649
DOI: 10.1126/science.227.4687.647
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Articles

Role of Chemotaxis in Establishing a Specific Nitrogen-Fixing Cyanobacterial-Bacterial Association

HANS W. PAERL 1 and KATHLEEN K. GALLUCCI 1

1 Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina, Morehead City 28557

A specific association with the cyanobacterium Anabaena oscillarioides was established by positive bacterial (pseudomonad) chemotaxis to Anabaena oscillarioides heterocysts. This association enhanced nitrogen fixation in A. oscillarioides, and positive chemotaxis was particularly strong during periods of active nitrogen fixation. Addition of compounds known to elicit positive chemotaxis in pseudomonads interfered with the establishment of the association, while removal of these compounds led to reestablishment of the association. Anabaena oscillarioides excretion products, some of which are exuded from heterocyst-vegetative cell junctions, are likely to be responsible for positive chemotactic responses. Chemotaxis-controlled associations such as this one explain in part why aquatic bacterial-algal and bacterial-particle associations occur sporadically and are heterogeneously distributed in time and space.

Submitted on August 15, 1984
Accepted on October 25, 1984


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Cultivation and Ecosystem Role of a Marine Roseobacter Clade-Affiliated Cluster Bacterium.
X. Mayali, P. J. S. Franks, and F. Azam (2008)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 74, 2595-2603
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Isolation and Identification of an Epibiotic Bacterium Associated with Heterocystous Anabaena Cells.
B. S. Stevenson and J. B. Waterbury (2006)
Biol. Bull. 210, 73-77
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)