Consider the cyanobacteria Nostoc. Individual cells grow att…
Consider the cyanobacteria Nostoc. Individual cells grow attached to each other in long chains produced from binary fission with cells remaining attached (e.g., streptococcus). Most perform photosynthesis, using photosystems I and II to generate ATP and NADPH that they use to power the fixation of carbon dioxide via the Calvin cycle. However, a small number form heterocysts, cells that instead of performing photosynthesis, fix nitrogen into ammonium. Heterocysts share their nitrogen compounds with their photosynthetic neighbors, who in turn share sugars with the heterocysts. If you extracted all the mRNA from a single heterocyst, and all the mRNA from a single photosynthetic cell, what information would this give you, i.e., what would this tell you about them?