A group of diatom species belonging to the Nitzschia genus, gave up on photosynthesis and now get their carbon straight from their environment, thanks to a bacterial gene picked up by an ancestor, ...

Diatoms account for a large proportion of the phytoplankton found in the water, and live both in the open sea and in freshwater lakes. By reviving 100-year-old spores that had laid buried and inactive ...

Diatoms – unicellular organisms – have long been known to science, but their overwhelming appetite for nitrate is a new discovery made in a global survey. Nitrate is a nutrient, widely used as ...

Single-celled algae and marine bacteria live in a complex but largely unexplored relationship. Now, a new study shows that the surface of diatoms is a surprisingly diverse habitat for bacteria. A team ...

Nitrogen is an essential component of all living organisms. It is also the key element controlling the growth of crops on land, as well as the microscopic oceanic plants that produce half the oxygen ...

Summary of genetic events leading to adaptive radiation of diatoms in the N. sing1 lineage. Unlike most diatoms, which perform photosynthesis to generate carbon compounds, some members of the genus ...