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Ultrastructure of the nitrogen-fixing, filamentous, nonheterocystous cyanobacterium,Plectonema boryanum

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Summary

The ultrastructure of fructose-supplemented and unsupplemented nitrogen-fixing (fix +) and nonfixing (fix −)Plectonema boryanum UTEX 581 cells was examined by transmission electron microscopy. The most prominent structural differences included the arrangement and morphology of the thylakoids and alterations in the appearance of the interthylakoidal spaces. These ultrastructural differences, together with other observations such as glycogen content and presence of nitrogenase (using acetylene reduction assay and immunogold localization), readily distinguished nonfixingP. boryanum from nitrogen-fixing cells.

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Smoker, J.A., Owen, H.A., Lehnen, L.P. et al. Ultrastructure of the nitrogen-fixing, filamentous, nonheterocystous cyanobacterium,Plectonema boryanum . Protoplasma 152, 130–135 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01323072

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01323072

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