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MBE Advance Access published online on February 12, 2004
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msh086
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2004; all rights reserved
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Accepted December 10, 2003
© 2004 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution

Original Articles

Intracellular Sphaeroid Bodies of Rhopalodia gibba Have Nitrogen Fixing Apparatus of Cyanobacterial Origin

Julia Prechtl 1, Christoph Kneip 1, Peter Lockhart 2, Klaus Wenderoth 1, and Uwe-G. Maier 1*

1 Cell Biology, Philipps-University Marburg, Karl-von Frisch-Str., D-35032 Marburg, FRG
2 Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: maier{at}staff.uni-marburg.de.


  Abstract

Nitrogen fixation is not regarded as a eukaryotic invention. The process has only ever been reported as being carried out by bacteria. These prokaryotes typically interact with their eukaryotic hosts as extracellular and temporary non obligate nitrogen fixing symbionts. However, intracellular permanent "sphaeroid bodies" have been reported within the fresh water diatom Rhopalodia gibba, and these too have been speculated as being able to provide N2 to their host diatom. These sphaeroid bodies have Gram-negative characteristics with thylakoids but no phycobilisomes. We demonstrate that they fix nitrogen under light conditions. We also show that phylogenetic analyses of their 16rRNA and nifD genes predict that their genome is closely related to that of Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51.142, a free living diazotrophic cyanobacterium. We suggest that the intracellular sphaeroid bodies of Rhopalodia gibba may represent a vertically transmitted, permanent endosymbiotic stage in the transition from a free living diazotrophic cyanobacterium to a nitrogen fixing eukaryotic organelle.

Key Words: sphaeroid body, Rhopalodia gibba, nitrogen fixation, endosymbiont


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