Study shows how marine microbes recycle iron from the debris of dead algae

A new study from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, shows the molecular machinery that helps move iron through the marine environment. The researchers report this week in mSystems, an open access journal from the American Society for Microbiology, on how Roseobacter bacteria claim heme, an iron-containing molecule that’s widespread in the ocean, directly from algal cells that have died and disintegrated.