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JXB Advance Access published online on November 1, 2005
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/eri309
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© The Author [2005]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received June 3, 2005
Accepted September 9, 2005

RESEARCH PAPER

Physiological and molecular diversity of feather moss associative N2-fixing cyanobacteria

Francesco Gentili 1*, Marie-Charlotte Nilsson 2, Olle Zackrisson 2, Thomas H. DeLuca 3, and Anita Sellstedt 1

1 UPSC, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
2 Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden
3 Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Francesco Gentili, E-mail: Francesco.Gentili{at}plantphys.umu.se


  Abstract

Cyanobacteria colonizing the feather moss Pleurozium schreberi were isolated from moss samples collected in northern Sweden and subjected to physiological and molecular characterization. Morphological studies of isolated and moss-associated cyanobacteria were carried out by light microscopy. Molecular tools were used for cyanobacteria identification, and a reconstitution experiment of the association between non-associative mosses and cyanobacteria was conducted. The influence of temperature on N2 fixation in the different cyanobacterial isolates and the influence of light and temperature on N2-fixation rates in the moss were studied using the acetylene reduction assay. Two different cyanobacteria were effectively isolated from P. schreberi: Nostoc sp. and Calothrix sp. A third genus, Stigonema sp. was identified by microscopy, but could not be isolated. The Nostoc sp. was found to fix N2 at lower temperatures than Calothrix sp. Nostoc sp. and Stigonema sp. were the predominant cyanobacteria colonizing the moss. The attempt to reconstitute the association between the moss and cyanobacteria was successful. The two isolated genera of cyanobacteria in feather moss samples collected in northern Sweden differ in their temperature optima, which may have important ecological implications.

Keywords: Acetylene reduction assay (ARA); Calothrix; cyanobacteria; moss; N2 fixation Nostoc; Stigonema.
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