Abstract
The recent discovery of intracellular carbonatogenesis in several cyanobacteria species has challenged the traditional view that this process was extracellular and not controlled. However, a detailed analysis of the size distribution, chemical composition and 3-D-arrangement of carbonates in these cyanobacteria is lacking. Here, we characterized these features in Candidatus Gloeomargarita lithophora C7 and Candidatus Synechococcus calcipolaris G9 by conventional transmission electron microscopy, tomography, ultramicrotomy, and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM). Both Ca. G. lithophora C7 and Ca. S. calcipolaris G9 formed numerous polyphosphate granules adjacent or engulfing Ca-carbonate inclusions when grown in phosphate-rich solutions. Ca-carbonates were scattered within Ca. G. lithophora C7 cells under these conditions, but sometimes arranged in one or several chains. In contrast, Ca-carbonates formed at cell septa in Ca. S. calcipolaris G9 and were segregated equally between daughter cells after cell division, arranging as distorted disks at cell poles. The size distribution of carbonates evolved from a positively to a negatively skewed distribution as particles grew. Conventional ultramicrotomy did not preserve Ca-carbonates explaining partly why intracellular calcification has been overlooked in the past. All these new observations allow discussing with unprecedented insight some nucleation and growth processes occurring in intracellularly calcifying cyanobacteria with a particular emphasis on the possible involvement of intracellular compartments and cytoskeleton.
Highlights
IntroductionCyanobacteria favor the precipitation of carbonate minerals by fixing CO2 by RuBisCO [8,9]
Cyanobacteria are abundant and widespread photosynthetic bacteria which have contributed massively to the primary production of some ecosystems for more than ~2.3 billion years [1,2].The biomineralization of carbonates by cyanobacteria has received much interest for several decades [3,4,5,6,7].Cyanobacteria favor the precipitation of carbonate minerals by fixing CO2 by RuBisCO [8,9]
We present new scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, 2-D electron microscopy and 3-D electron tomography data acquired on both Candidatus
Summary
Cyanobacteria favor the precipitation of carbonate minerals by fixing CO2 by RuBisCO [8,9]. They have been considered as major contributors to the formation of carbonates rocks such as stromatolites, which are found abundantly in the geological record up to ~3.5 Ga ago [10] and whitings, which are ephemeral square kilometer-sized milk-white patches in lakes or shallow tropical seas [11]. The formation of carbonates by cyanobacteria has invariably been considered as an extracellular and biologically induced mineralization process [14,15,16]. CO2 is subsequently fixed by RuBisCO, while OHproduction is balanced by H+ import
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