Myxobacterium found doing photosynthesis

Researchers at Germany’s Leibniz Institute DSMZ said on May 13 that they had identified a newly discovered myxobacterium associated with marine cyanobacteria that carries the genetic machinery for photosynthesis. The organism, named *Candidatus Photomyxococcus marinus*, was described by DSMZ scientists in a press release tied to two recent journal papers. One of those papers, published in *ISME Communications* on February 27, reported a metagenome-assembled genome from a cyanobacterial community that contained a photosynthesis gene cluster. ### Where did this report come from? DSMZ, the Leibniz Institute’s microbial collection and research center in Braunschweig, posted the announcement on May 13 and said the work was led by Jörn Petersen in its Department of Microorganisms. The release said the team had been studying the “cyanosphere,” the community of bacteria living with cyanobacteria, and singled out the myxobacterium as a notable finding. The social-media posts that circulated this week were not the first public record of the finding. (phys.org) The underlying *ISME Communications* article was published in February 2026, with Pia Marter, Henner Brinkmann, Heike M. Freese, Victoria Ringel, Boyke Bunk, Michael Jarek, Michal Koblížek, Irene Wagner-Döbler and Jörn Petersen listed as authors. ### What exactly did the paper say about the myxobacterium? (dsmz.de) The *ISME Communications* paper examined 14 non-axenic cultures of marine mat-forming cyanobacteria in the genus *Coleofasciculus* from nine sampling sites. The authors reported 320 metagenome-assembled genomes from associated bacteria and said one Myxococcales genome, assigned to *Candidatus Photomyxococcus marinus*, contained a photosynthesis gene cluster. (academic.oup.com) The paper did not say the bacterium had been isolated in pure culture or shown in that article to perform oxygenic photosynthesis on its own. Instead, it reported genomic evidence inside a mixed cyanobacterial community and said the finding “paves the way to investigate photosynthesis in Deltaproteobacteria,” according to the abstract. ### Why are researchers calling it unusual? (academic.oup.com) DSMZ said myxobacteria are generally known as predatory bacteria that feed on other microorganisms and are valued for metabolites with medical and biotechnological uses. In the institute’s May 13 release, first author Pia Marter said the newly discovered bacterium “possesses the complete repertoire of genes required to perform photosynthesis” and called it the first phototrophic myxobacterium that is already cultivated, citing consistency with an earlier environmental metagenome study. (academic.oup.com) That wording matters because the strongest public claim now available is still framed by DSMZ as a research finding tied to cultivation and genomic evidence, not as a standalone peer-reviewed demonstration in the release text that the organism independently carries out oxygen-producing photosynthesis under axenic conditions. ### How broad was the cyanobacterial survey? DSMZ said its researchers examined more than 30 cultures of the filamentous marine cyanobacterium *Coleofasciculus*. (idw-online.de) In the culture designated *Coleofasciculus* sp. WW12 alone, the institute said more than 70 associated bacterial taxa were identified, and the researchers suspect the broader dataset includes more than 60 previously undescribed species. The February paper gave a narrower published dataset for the metagenomic analysis: 14 non-axenic *Coleofasciculus* cultures from nine marine sites. That article also reported 36 proteobacterial metagenome-assembled genomes with photosynthesis gene clusters and 32 genomes with proteorhodopsin or xanthorhodopsin operons, placing the myxobacterium inside a wider community of light-linked metabolisms. (phys.org) ### What can be verified, and what remains open? The verifiable record as of May 16 consists of a DSMZ institutional release and a February *ISME Communications* paper naming *Candidatus Photomyxococcus marinus* and describing a photosynthesis gene cluster in a Myxococcales genome from a cyanobacterial microbiome. DSMZ also said related findings were published in *Environmental Microbiology Reports*, where a separate paper described long-read 16S-ITS profiling of the *Coleofasciculus* microbiome. (academic.oup.com) What remains open is the extent of experimental validation behind the broadest social-media phrasing that a myxobacterium was “doing photosynthesis.” The sources available online point clearly to genomic and cultivation-based claims from the DSMZ team, but the public materials retrieved here do not include a standalone peer-reviewed paper showing direct physiological measurements by an axenic isolate. On DSMZ’s website, the institute says the *Coleofasciculus* microbiome project continues and links the work to its cyanobacterial collection and associated microbiota resources. (idw-online.de) The next concrete place to watch is the formal literature around *Candidatus Photomyxococcus marinus* and any follow-up paper from Pia Marter, Jörn Petersen and co-authors that reports direct physiological tests beyond the genome-based evidence already published. (dsmz.de)