A research team at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany has now found a bacterium that forms a team with a green alga. Both microorganisms support each other in their growth. Additionally, the bacterium helps the microalga to neutralize the toxin of another, harmful bacterium. The fundamental understanding of algal-bacterial interactions also plays an important role in climate protection, as it can help to understand and thus protect this ecologically important partnership. The results of the study will be published on 5. April 2024 in the scientific journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America); (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401632121).