Articles | Volume 20, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-687-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-687-2023
BG Letters
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13 Feb 2023
BG Letters | Highlight paper |  | 13 Feb 2023

Nitrous oxide (N2O) synthesis by the freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

Federico Fabisik, Benoit Guieysse, Jonathan Procter, and Maxence Plouviez

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Cited articles

Alcántara, C., Muñoz, R., Norvill, Z., Plouviez, M., and Guieysse, B.: Nitrous oxide emissions from high rate algal ponds treating domestic wastewater, Bioresour. Technol., 177, 110–117, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.10.134, 2015. 
Astier, J., Rossi, J., Chatelain, P., Klinguer, A., Besson-Bard, A., Rosnoblet, C., Jeandroz, S., Nicolas-Frances, V., and Wendehenne, D.: Nitric oxide production and signalling in algae, J. Exp. Bot., 72, 781–792, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa421, 2021. 
Bauer, S. K., Grotz, L. S., Connelly, E. B., and Colosi, L. M.: Reevaluation of the global warming impacts of algae-derived biofuels to account for possible contributions of nitrous oxide, Bioresour Technol, 218, 196–201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.058, 2016. 
Béchet, Q., Chambonniere, P., Shilton, A., Guizard, G., and Guieysse, B.: Algal productivity modeling: a step toward accurate assessments of full-scale algal cultivation, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 112, 987–996, https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.25517, 2015. 
Bellido-Pedraza, C. M., Calatrava, V., Sanz-Luque, E., Tejada-Jimenez, M., Llamas, A., Plouviez, M., Guieysse, B., Fernandez, E., and Galvan, A.: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, an Algal Model in the Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, 9, 903, https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9070903, 2020. 
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Co-editor-in-chief
This laboratory and protein database research by Fabisik and co-workers demonstrates that the widespread freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa is capable of producing nitrous oxide, a very potent greenhouse gas, from nitrite. This discovery poses the important question about the relevance of these organisms for global nitrous oxide emissions into the atmosphere and their response to environmental change.
Short summary
We show, for the first time, that pure cultures of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa can synthesize the potent greenhouse gas N2O using nitrite as substrate. Our findings have broad environmental implications because M. aeruginosa is globally found in freshwater ecosystems and is often the dominant species found in algae blooms. Further research is now needed to determine the occurrence and significance of N2O emissions from ecosystems rich with M. aeruginosa.
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