Trichodesmium erythraeum IMS101

Trichodesmium erythraeum occurs throughout the open waters of oligotrophic tropical and subtropical oceans and forms filaments (trichomes) of 20 to 200 cells that can further aggregate into colonies several millimeters across. Trichodesmium can form blooms in excess of 100,000 km2, which are most commonly composed of Trichodesmium erythraeum and Trichodesmium thiebautii. A marine diazotroph, it fixes nitrogen in non-granulated cells. It is also able to induce genes under phosphate stress that would allow it utilize organic phosphonate, an ability so far unknown in marine cyanobacteria. The colonies vary in color from yellowish-brown to deep red because they contain phycoerythrin as their primary light harvesting pigment. Trichodesmium spp. are planktonic and owe their buoyancy to the possession of gas vacuoles. Trichodesmium erythraeum (strain IMS101) produces a small intracellular cyclic peptide dubbed trichamide, which in its pure form is not neurotoxic in mice, however a crude preparation of the peptide is neurotoxic. (HAMAP: TRIEI)