Unicellular cyanobacteria fix N2 in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean

Fixed nitrogen (N) often limits the growth of organisms in terrestrial and aquatic biomes, and N availability has been important in controlling the CO2 balance of modern and ancient oceans. The fixation of atmospheric dinitrogen gas (N2) to ammonia is catalysed by nitrogenase and provides a fixed N for N-limited environments. The filamentous cyanobacterium Trichodesmium has been assumed to be the predominant oceanic N2-fixing microorganism since the discovery of N2 fixation in Trichodesmium in 1961 (ref. 6). Attention has recently focused on oceanic N2 fixation because nitrogen availability is generally limiting in many oceans, and attempts to constrain the global atmosphere-ocean fluxes of CO2 are based on basin-scale N balances. Biogeochemical studies and models have suggested that total N2-fixation rates may be substantially greater than previously believed but cannot be reconciled with observed Trichodesmium abundances. It is curious that there are so few known N2-fixing microorganisms in oligotrophic oceans when it is clearly ecologically advantageous. Here we show that there are unicellular cyanobacteria in the open ocean that are expressing nitrogenase, and are abundant enough to potentially have a significant role in N dynamics.     

Increased release of tumour cells by collagenase at acid pH: a possible mechanism for metastasis.

The ability of collagenase to disaggregate a solid metastasizing lymphosarcoma has been shown to considerably increase with reducing environmental pH. It is suggested that this effect may be operating in vivo to release cells from a primary tumour.     

Biomimetic synthesis of cannabispiran.

Total synthesis of cannabispiran (1) was accomplished by a biomimetic-type cyclization of the bibenzyl 2, using K3Fe(CN)6 or MoCl4.     

The relationship of a prochlorophyte Prochlorothrix hollandica to green chloroplasts

It is generally accepted that chloroplasts arose from one or more endosymbiotic events between an ancestral cyanobacterium and a eukaryote. Such an origin fits well in the case of the chloroplasts of rhodophytes that, like cyanobacteria, contain chlorophyll a and phycobilin pigments. The green chloroplasts from higher plants, green algae, and euglenoids however, contain chlorophyll b as well as chlorophyll a, and lack phycobilins. Consequently, it has been suggested that they arose independently of the rhodophyte chloroplasts, from an ancestral prokaryote containing that complement of pigments. The 'prochlorophytes' Prochloron didemni (an exosymbiont on didemnid ascidians) and Prochlorothrix hollandica (a recently discovered, free-living, filamentous form) have been suggested to be modern counterparts of the ancestor of the green chloroplasts because they are prokaryotes that also contain both chlorophylls a and b, and lack phycobilins. We report here a 16S rRNA-based phylogenetic analysis of P. hollandica. The organism is found to fall within the cyanobacterial line of descent, as do the green chloroplasts, but it is not a specific relative of green chloroplasts. Thus, similar pigment compositions do not necessarily reflect close evolutionary relationships.     

The in vitro effect of aprotinin upon spleen cells from normal and tumour-bearing mice exposed to PPD and tumour cells

Summary A protinin (Trasylol) is shown to enhance the response of spleen cells from normal and tumour bearing mice to PPD and tumour cells. This enhancement is greater in the tumour-bearing mice.Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Bayer (U.K.) Limited for generous supplies of aprotinin. The PPD was supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture. The work was supported by a grant from the North of England Cancer Research Campaign.     

Volcanic carbon dioxide vents show ecosystem effects of ocean acidification

The atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide (p(CO(2))) will almost certainly be double that of pre-industrial levels by 2100 and will be considerably higher than at any time during the past few million years. The oceans are a principal sink for anthropogenic CO(2) where it is estimated to have caused a 30% increase in the concentration of H(+) in ocean surface waters since the early 1900s and may lead to a drop in seawater pH of up to 0.5 units by 2100 (refs 2, 3). Our understanding of how increased ocean acidity may affect marine ecosystems is at present very limited as almost all studies have been in vitro, short-term, rapid perturbation experiments on isolated elements of the ecosystem. Here we show the effects of acidification on benthic ecosystems at shallow coastal sites where volcanic CO(2) vents lower the pH of the water column. Along gradients of normal pH (8.1-8.2) to lowered pH (mean 7.8-7.9, minimum 7.4-7.5), typical rocky shore communities with abundant calcareous organisms shifted to communities lacking scleractinian corals with significant reductions in sea urchin and coralline algal abundance. To our knowledge, this is the first ecosystem-scale validation of predictions that these important groups of organisms are susceptible to elevated amounts of p(CO(2)). Sea-grass production was highest in an area at mean pH 7.6 (1,827 (mu)atm p(CO(2))) where coralline algal biomass was significantly reduced and gastropod shells were dissolving due to periods of carbonate sub-saturation. The species populating the vent sites comprise a suite of organisms that are resilient to naturally high concentrations of p(CO(2)) and indicate that ocean acidification may benefit highly invasive non-native algal species. Our results provide the first in situ insights into how shallow water marine communities might change when susceptible organisms are removed owing to ocean acidification.     

Anthropogenically enhanced fluxes of water and carbon from the Mississippi River

The water and dissolved inorganic carbon exported by rivers are important net fluxes that connect terrestrial and oceanic water and carbon reservoirs. For most rivers, the majority of dissolved inorganic carbon is in the form of bicarbonate. The riverine bicarbonate flux originates mainly from the dissolution of rock minerals by soil water carbon dioxide, a process called chemical weathering, which controls the buffering capacity and mineral content of receiving streams and rivers. Here we introduce an unprecedented high-temporal-resolution, 100-year data set from the Mississippi River and couple it with sub-watershed and precipitation data to reveal that the large increase in bicarbonate flux that has occurred over the past 50 years (ref. 3) is clearly anthropogenically driven. We show that the increase in bicarbonate and water fluxes is caused mainly by an increase in discharge from agricultural watersheds that has not been balanced by a rise in precipitation, which is also relevant to nutrient and pesticide fluxes to the Gulf of Mexico. These findings demonstrate that alterations in chemical weathering are relevant to improving contemporary biogeochemical budgets. Furthermore, land use change and management were arguably more important than changes in climate and plant CO2 fertilization to increases in riverine water and carbon export from this large region over the past 50 years.