期刊
NATURE
卷 473, 期 7346, 页码 203-+出版社
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/nature10074
关键词
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资金
- National Science Foundation [NSF-OCE-0722374, NSF-OCE-0727997, NSF-MCB-1024913]
- JCVI
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France)
- Czech Science Foundation [206/08/1423]
Diatoms dominate the biomass of phytoplankton in nutrient-rich conditions and form the basis of some of the world's most productive marine food webs(1-4). The diatom nuclear genome contains genes with bacterial and plastid origins as well as genes of the secondary endosymbiotic host (the exosymbiont(5))(1,6-10), yet little is known about the relative contribution of each gene group to diatom metabolism. Here we show that the exosymbiont-derived ornithine-urea cycle, which is similar to that of metazoans but is absent in green algae and plants, facilitates rapid recovery from prolonged nitrogen limitation. RNA-interference-mediated knockdown of a mitochondrial carbamoyl phosphate synthase impairs the response of nitrogen-limited diatoms to nitrogen addition. Metabolomic analyses indicate that intermediates in the ornithine-urea cycle are particularly depleted and that both the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase cycles are linked directly with the ornithine-urea cycle. Several other depleted metabolites are generated from ornithine-urea cycle intermediates by the products of genes laterally acquired from bacteria. This metabolic coupling of bacterial-and exosymbiont-derived proteins seems to be fundamental to diatom physiology because the compounds affected include the major diatom osmolyte proline(12) and the precursors for long-chain polyamines required for silica precipitation during cell wall formation(11). So far, the ornithine-urea cycle is only known for its essential role in the removal of fixed nitrogen in metazoans. In diatoms, this cycle serves as a distribution and repackaging hub for inorganic carbon and nitrogen and contributes significantly to the metabolic response of diatoms to episodic nitrogen availability. The diatom ornithine-urea cycle therefore represents a key pathway for anaplerotic carbon fixation into nitrogenous compounds that are essential for diatom growth and for the contribution of diatoms to marine productivity.
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