Molecular and physiological evidence of genetic assimilation to high CO2 in the marine nitrogen fixer Trichodesmium.

ABSTRACT: Most investigations of biogeochemically important microbes have focused on plastic (short-term) phenotypic responses in the absence of genetic change, whereas few have investigated adaptive (long-term) responses. However, no studies to date have investigated the molecular progression underlying the transition from plasticity to adaptation under elevated CO₂ for a marine nitrogen-fixer. To address this gap, we cultured the globally important cyanobacterium Trichodesmium at both low and high CO₂ for 4.5 y, followed by reciprocal transplantation experiments to test for adaptation. Intriguingly, fitness actually increased in all high-CO₂ adapted cell lines in the ancestral environment upon reciprocal transplantation. By leveraging coordinated phenotypic and tra

SUBMITTER: Walworth NG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5127367 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature