Amazing stuff!
"... The microbes [Prochlorococcus bacteria] are likely the most abundant photosynthetic organism on the planet, and they create a significant portion — 10% to 20% — of the atmosphere’s oxygen. ...
“We realized the cyanobacteria were connected to each other,” ... There were links between Prochlorococcus cells, and also with another bacterium, called Synechococcus, which often lives nearby. In the images, silvery bridges linked three, four, and sometimes 10 or more cells. ...
After a battery of tests ... that these bridges are bacterial nanotubes. First observed in a common lab bacterium only 14 years ago, bacterial nanotubes are structures made of cell membrane that allow nutrients and resources to flow between two or more cells.
The structures have been a source of fascination and controversy over the last decade ...
Many bacteria have active social lives. Some make pili, hairlike growths of protein that link two cells to allow them to exchange DNA. Some form dense plaques together, known as biofilms. And many emit tiny bubbles known as vesicles that contain DNA, RNA or other chemicals, like messages in a bottle for whatever cell happens to intercept them. ..."
From the abstract:
"Microbial associations and interactions drive and regulate nutrient fluxes in the ocean. However, physical contact between cells of marine cyanobacteria has not been studied thus far. Here, we show a mechanism of direct interaction between the marine cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, the intercellular membrane nanotubes.
We present evidence of inter- and intra-genus exchange of cytoplasmic material between neighboring and distant cells of cyanobacteria mediated by nanotubes. We visualized and measured these structures in xenic and axenic cultures and in natural samples. We show that nanotubes are produced between living cells, suggesting that this is a relevant system of exchange material in vivo. The discovery of nanotubes acting as exchange bridges in the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the ocean may have important implications for their interactions with other organisms and their population dynamics."
Fig. 1. Nanotubes form between cyanobacterial cells.
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