LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Blue green algae are significant species in the global carbon cycle because they transform nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into a useable nutrient, enabling photosynthesis in nutrient-poor waters.
Using NanoSIMS (high- resolution secondary ion mass spectrometer), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USC and Portland State University scientists showed that they could image and track nutrient uptake in blue green algae at the nanoscale. The new method should help to clear up the age-old puzzle of how different species of blue green algae can fix or take up atmospheric nitrogen and carbon in a single cell organism. Carbon fixation during photosynthesis produces oxygen, which inhibits nitrogen fixation.
Different species of blue green algae solve the problem in different ways and scientists still dont understand how some of the most important species can get both of these jobs done.
To develop the new method, the researchers studied the freshwater algae, Anabaena oscillarioides, which separates the two processes into adjacent cells that share the products. LLNL researchers Peter Weber, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Stewart Fallon and Ian Hutcheon used NanoSIMS to track the uptake and movement of carbon and nitrogen inside two types of cells in the algae: vegetative cells, which perform carbon fixation, and heterocysts, thick-walled relatives that pull in nitrogen.
NanoSIMS provides the ability to map distributions of elements and isotopes with 50-100-nanometer resolution. The device allowed the scientists to measure the carbon and nitrogen uptake and subsequent distribution at the cellular and subcellular level.
The method shows the dynamics of resource uptake and redistribution down to the level of sub-micron nitrogen storage and cell wall formation during cell division, Weber said.
The researchers used stable isotope tracers in nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases to track nitrogen and ca
'"/>
Contact: Anne Stark
stark8@llnl.gov
925-422-9799
DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
10-Jul-2007