Protection of nitrogenase from photosynthetic O2 evolution in Trichodesmium: methodological pitfalls and advances over 30 years of research

The Trichodesmium genus comprises some of the most abundant N2-fixing organisms in oligotrophic marine ecosystems. Since nitrogenase, the key enzyme for N2 fixation, is irreversibly inhibited upon O2 exposure, these organisms have to coordinate their N2-fixing ability with simultaneous photosynthetic O2 production. Although being the principal object of many laboratory and field studies, the overall process of how Trichodesmium reconciles these two mutually exclusive processes remains unresolved. This is in part due to contradictory results that fuel the Trichodesmium enigma. In this review, we sift through methodological details that could potentially explain the discrepancy between findings related to Trichodesmium's physiology. In doing so, we exhaustively contrast studies concerning both spatial and temporal nitrogenase protective strategies, with particular attention to more recent insights. Finally, we suggest new experimental approaches for solving the complex orchestration of N2 fixation and photosynthesis in Trichodesmium.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Photosynthetica (Praha)

• Publication date

  2023-03-13

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.32615/ps.2023.007PMID 39650126PMCID 11515819
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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