''Anabaena variabilis'' is a species of filamentous cyanobacterium. This species of the genus '' Anabaena'' and the domain Eubacteria is capable of

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

. This species is

heterotroph A heterotroph (; ) is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but ...

ic, meaning that it may grow without light in the presence of

fructose Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...

. It also can convert atmospheric dinitrogen to

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

via

nitrogen fixation Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular dinitrogen () is converted into ammonia (). It occurs both biologically and abiological nitrogen fixation, abiologically in chemical industry, chemical industries. Biological nitrogen ...

. ''Anabaena variabilis'' is a phylogenic-cousin of the more well-known species '' Nostoc spirrilum''. Both of these species along with many other cyanobacteria are known to form symbiotic relationships with plants. Other cyanobacteria are known to form symbiotic relationships with

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...

s, though no such relationship has been observed with ''Anabaena variabilis''. ''Anabaena variabilis'' is also a

model organism A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...

for studying the beginnings of multicellular life due to its filamentous characterization and cellular-differentiation capabilities.

References

Page 12 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson.

References

Further reading