Trichodesmium Totally Explained

Everything about Trichodesmium totally explained

Trichodesmium, also called sea sawdust, is a genus of filamentous cyanobacteria. They are found in nutrient poor tropical and subtropical ocean waters (particularly around Australia, where they were first described by Captain Cook). Trichodesmium fixes atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, usable also for other organisms. While far from the only nitrogen fixing bacteria, they're among the most important of the marine varieties, and are being extensively studied for their role in nutrient cycling in the ocean. Unlike other nitrogen fixing bacteria, Trichodesmium doesn't have heterocysts, nor any other specialised cells for this task. Furthermore, nitrogen fixation peaks at mid-day, for example occurs during the same time as photosynthesis. Inhibitor studies even revealed that photosystem II activity is essential for nitrogen fixation in this organism. All this may seem contradictory at first glance, because the enzyme responsible for nitrogen fixation, nitrogenase, is irreversibly inhibited by oxygen. However, Trichodesmium utilises photosynthesis for nitrogen fixation by carrying out the Mehler reaction, during which the oxygen produced by PSII is reduced again after PSI. This regulation of photosynthesis for nitrogen fixation involves rapidly reversible coupling of their light-harvesting antenna, the phycobilisomes, with PSI and PSII. Trichodesmium forms blooms and provides substrate for many small oceanic organisms (bacteria, diatoms, dinoflagellates, protozoa, and copepods).

Further Information

Get more info on 'Trichodesmium'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://trichodesmium.totallyexplained.com">Trichodesmium Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.