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Long-standing marine mystery solved: How algae get nitrogen to grow - EurekAlert

In a new study, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Vienna shed light on an unexpected partnership:  A marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. This symbiosis likely plays a key role for global marine nitrogen fixation and productivity, and thus uptake of carbon dioxide. The newly-discovered bacterial symbiont is closely related to the nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia which live in partnership with many crop plants and may also open up new avenues for engineering nitrogen-fixing plants. The results were published in the current print edition of the renowned journal Nature.

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