a special cell type found in cyanobacteria and responsible for fixing nitrogen
heterocyst in American English
(ˈhetərəˌsɪst)
noun
Bacteriology
one of the enlarged nitrogen-fixing cells occurring along the filaments in some blue-green algae
Word origin
[1870–75; hetero- + cyst]This word is first recorded in the period 1870–75. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Victorian, giveaway, linkage, onshore, washouthetero- is a combining form meaning “different,” “other,” used in the formation of compoundwords. Other words that use the affix hetero- include: heterochrony, heterogamous, heterogonous, heterologous, heterology
Examples of 'heterocyst' in a sentence
heterocyst
Heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria grow as filaments in which intercellular molecular exchange takes place.
Mercedes Nieves-Morión, Conrad W. Mullineaux, Enrique Flores, Stephen J. Giovannoni 2017, 'Molecular Diffusion through Cyanobacterial Septal Junctions', mBiohttp://mbio.asm.org/cgi/content/full/8/1/e01756-16. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
The average heterocyst frequency was 0.23% in 2013 and 0.76% in 2014.
Kuimei Qian, Martin Dokulil, Yuwei Chen 2019, 'Do the regular annual extreme water level changes affect the seasonal appearance ofAnabaena in Poyang Lake?', PeerJhttps://peerj.com/articles/6608.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
These two ingredients allow us to understand the principles by which heterocyst patterns can be generated and sustained.
Alejandro Torres-Sánchez, Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes, Fernando Falo 2015, 'An integrative approach for modeling and simulation of heterocyst pattern formationin cyanobacteria filaments.', PLoS Computational Biologyhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4376521?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Most of the newly identified interrupted orthologs encode proteins that have been shown to have heterocyst-specific activity.
Jason A. Hilton, John C. Meeks, Jonathan P. Zehr 2016, 'Surveying DNA Elements within Functional Genes of Heterocyst-Forming Cyanobacteria',PLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.0156034. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
As an attempt to shed light on this issue, here we explore heterocyst differentiation under the paradigm of systems biology.
Alejandro Torres-Sánchez, Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes, Fernando Falo 2015, 'An integrative approach for modeling and simulation of heterocyst pattern formationin cyanobacteria filaments.', PLoS Computational Biologyhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4376521?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
To test if these conserved promoter elements were crucial for heterocyst-specific expression, promoter-yfp reporter constructs were designed.
Adam Wegelius, Xin Li, Federico Turco, Karin Stensjö 2018, 'Design and characterization of a synthetic minimal promoter for heterocyst-specificexpression in filamentous cyanobacteria', PLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.0203898. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Orthologs unique to cyanobacteria exhibiting specific characteristics, such as filament formation, heterocyst differentiation,diazotrophy and symbiotic competence, were also identified.
Nylander Johan AA, Larsson John, Bergman Birgitta 2011, 'Genome fluctuations in cyanobacteria reflect evolutionary, developmental and adaptivetraits', BMC Evolutionary Biologyhttp://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/11/187. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)