Marine diazotrophs are a diverse group with key roles in biogeochemical fluxes linked to primary productivity. The unicellular, diazotrophic cyanobacterium Cyanothece is widely found in coastal, subtropical oceans. We analyze the consequences of diazotrophy on growth efficiency, compared to NO3 --supported growth in Cyanothece, to understand how cells cope with N2-fixation when they also have to face carbon limitation, which may transiently affect populations in coastal environments or during blooms of phytoplankton communities. When grown in obligate diazotrophy, cells face the double burden of a more ATP-demanding N-acquisition mode and additional metabolic losses imposed by the transient storage of reducing potential as carbohydrate, compared to a hypothetical N2 assimilation directly driven by photosynthetic electron transport. Further, this energetic burden imposed by N2-fixation could not be alleviated, despite the high irradiance level within the cultures, because photosynthesis was limited by the availability of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and possibly by a constrained capacity for carbon storage. DIC limitation exacerbates the costs on growth imposed by nitrogen fixation. Therefore, the competitive efficiency of diazotrophs could be hindered in areas with insufficient renewal of dissolved gases and/or with intense phytoplankton biomass that both decrease available light energy and draw the DIC level down.

Centre Algatech Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Třeboň Czechia

Centre for Ecological Research Balaton Limnological Institute Klebelsberg Kuno u 3 8237 Tihany Hungary

Departamento de Botânica Centro de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianópolis Brazil

Department of Adaptive Biotechnologies Global Change Research Institute CAS Brno Czechia

Department of Earth Sciences Utrecht University Utrecht Netherlands

Department of Ecology Berlin Institute of Technology Ernst Reuter Platz 1 Berlin Germany

Department of Microbiology Oregon State University Corvallis OR United States

Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente UniversitaÌ Politecnica delle Marche Ancona Italy

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries Zur alten Fischerhütte 2 Stechlin Germany

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology Bremen Germany

Mount Allison University Sackville NB Canada

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University Utrecht Netherlands

Sorbonne Université CNRS LOMIC Banyuls sur Mer France

Sorbonne Université CNRS LOV Villefranche sur Mer France

UMR BOREA Université de Caen Basse Normandie Caen France

Universidade Federal de São Carlos São Carlos Brazil

University of Technology Sydney Climate Change Cluster Faculty of Science Ultimo NSW Australia

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The balance between photosynthesis and respiration explains the niche differentiation between Crocosphaera and Cyanothece

Quantifying Cyanothece growth under DIC limitation

Temporal Patterns and Intra- and Inter-Cellular Variability in Carbon and Nitrogen Assimilation by the Unicellular Cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142