Two species of marine bacteria from the North Sea have established an unusual and sometimes destructive relationship to produce the important vitamin B12. The team's experiments show that the two microbial species have developed a coordinated strategy to obtain the scarce but essential vitamin.
More than 60 researchers from Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Göttingen and Bonn investigated the bacteria of the Roseobacter group over the past 13 years within the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre Roseobacter, which is funded by the German Research Foundation . These bacteria are found in all marine habitats -- from the tropics to the polar seas and from the sea surface to the deep sea.
Species known as marine habitat-forming species -- gorgonians, corals, algae, seaweeds, marine phanerogams, etc.-- are organisms that help generate and structure the underwater landscapes. These are ...