Trichodesmium thiebautii
| Trichodesmium thiebautii | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Bacteria |
| Phylum: | Cyanobacteria |
| Class: | Cyanophyceae |
| Order: | Oscillatoriales |
| Family: | Microcoleaceae |
| Genus: | Trichodesmium |
| Species: | T. thiebautii |
| Binomial name | |
|
Trichodesmium thiebautii M.A. Gomont, 1892 |
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Trichodesmium thiebautii is a cyanobacteria that is often found in open oceans of tropical and subtropical regions and is known to be a contributor to large oceanic surface blooms. This microbial species is a diazotroph, meaning it fixes nitrogen gas (N2), but it does so without the use of heterocysts. Interestingly, T. thiebautii is able to simultaneously perform oxygenic photosynthesis.T. thiebautii was discovered in 1892 by M.A. Gomont.T. thiebautii are important for nutrient cycling in marine habitats because of their ability to fix N2, a limiting nutrient in ocean ecosystems.
In 1830 the cyanobacteria genus Trichodesmium was first found in samples collected in marine waters surrounding Egypt and Syria, and described based on morphological features. In 1892, approximately sixty years following the initial discovery of the genus, Gomont described two new species, T. thiebautii and T. hildebrandtii, based on specific morphological characteristics, particularly trichome shape.T. thiebautii was first cultured in a lab in 1993, from water samples collected in North Carolina coastal waters, using a sterilized oligotrophic seawater solution with an addition of 25 mg liter−1Tricine buffer and adjusted to a pH of 8.17.
The highly diverse colonial and cellular morphologies among Trichodesmium species have caused much debate about the phylogeny of the genus. Upon initial discovery by Ehrenberg in 1830, the genus Trichodesmium was placed in the family Oscillatoriaceae. More recently, an examination of several key morphological characteristics including colony formation associated with sheath production, cell differentiation along the trichome, and fatty acid composition led to the placement of Trichodesmium thiebautii into the family and order Oscillatoriales. Many species originally placed into the family Phormidiaceae, including Trichodesmium spp., were taxonomically relocated in 2005 by two researchers, J. Komárek and K. Anagnostidis, into the family Microcoleaceae, where they remain today.
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