image: Ornithocercus thumii, a marine dinoflagellate with cyanobacterial symbionts. Ornithocercus species cells are surrounded by a cellulosic covering and crown-shaped extensions of the covering that form an extracellular chamber. A number of coccoid, brown-colored cyanobacteria reside in the specialized chamber. view more
Credit: Takuro Nakayama
Researchers describe the genome of a cyanobacterium, OmCyn, that has previously gone undetected in marine metagenomics studies due to its symbiotic relationship with a dinoflagellate, the eukaryote in which the cyanobacterium resides; the cyanobacterium is distributed worldwide and represents a lineage in an ecologically important group of cyanobacteria, suggesting that other undiscovered cryptic cyanobacterial lineages may exist.
Article #19-02538: "Single-cell genomics unveiled a cryptic cyanobacterial lineage with a worldwide distribution hidden by a dinoflagellate host," by Takuro Nakayama et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Takuro Nakayama, Tohoku University, JAPAN; tel: +81-22-795-3626; e-mail: nakayama.t@tohoku.ac.jp
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences