Project description:Although N2 fixation can occur in free-living cyanobacteria, the unicellular endosymbiotic cyanobacterium Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa (UCYN-A) is considered to be a dominant N2-fixing species in marine ecosystems. Four UCYN-A sublineages are known from partial nitrogenase (nifH) gene sequences. However, few studies have investigated their habitat preferences and regulation by their respective hosts in open-ocean versus coastal environments. Here, we compared UCYN-A transcriptomes from oligotrophic open-ocean versus nutrient-rich coastal waters. UCYN-A1 metabolism was more impacted by habitat changes than UCYN-A2. However, across habitats and sublineages genes for nitrogen fixation and energy production were highly transcribed. Curiously these genes, critical to the symbiosis for the exchange of fixed nitrogen for fixed carbon, maintained the same schedule of diel expression across habitats and UCYN-A sublineages, including UCYN-A3 in the open-ocean transcriptomes. Our results undersore the importance of nitrogen fixation in UCYN-A symbioses across habitats, with consequences for community interaction and global biogeochemical cycles.
Project description:Specification and propagation of the centromeres of eukaryotic chromosomes is determined by epigenetic mechanisms. Unfortunately, the epigenetic characteristics of centromeric DNA and chromatin are difficult to define because the centromeres are composed of highly repetitive DNA sequences in most eukaryotic species. Several rice centromeres have been fully sequenced, making rice an excellent model for centromere research. We conducted genome-wide mapping of cytosine methylation using methylcytosine immunoprecipitation combined with Illumina sequencing. The DNA sequences in the core domains of rice Cen4, Cen5, and Cen8 showed elevated methylation levels compared to the sequences in the pericentromeric regions. In addition, elevated methylation levels were associated with the DNA sequences in the CENH3-binding subdomains compared to the sequences in the flanking H3 subdomains. In contrast, the centromeric domain of Cen11, which is composed exclusively of centromeric satellite DNA, is hypomethylated compared to the pericentromeric domains. Thus, the DNA sequences associated with functional centromeres can be either hypomethylated or hypermethylated. The methylation patterns of centromeric DNA appear to be correlated with the composition of the associated DNA sequences. We propose that both hypomethylation and hypermethylation of CENH3-associated DNA sequences can serve as epigenetic marks to distinguish where CENH3 deposition will occur within the surrounding H3 chromatin. mCIP-seq of one sample of rice seedling