Cyanobiont

A cyanobiont is a cyanobacterium that lives in symbiosis with an eukaryote, sometimes inside the cells of the eukaryote. The cyanobiont fixes nitrogen, and sometimes also performs photosynthesis for the host organism. The cyanobiont is often vertically transmitted, this is the case for cyanobionts of diatoms, lichens, didemnid ascidians, Azolla ferns and some sponges. Some of these cyanobionts cannot live without the host organism.^[1]

References

1. ^ Douglas AE, Raven JA (January 2003). "Genomes at the interface between bacteria and organelles". Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 358 (1429): 5–17; discussion 517–8. doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1188. PMC 1693093. PMID 12594915. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1693093.