Distribution and Diversity of Rhodopsin-Producing Microbes in the Chesapeake Bay.

ABSTRACT: Although sunlight is an abundant source of energy in surface environments, less than 0.5% of the available photons are captured by (bacterio)chlorophyll-dependent photosynthesis in plants and bacteria. Metagenomic data indicate that 30 to 60% of the bacterial genomes in some environments encode rhodopsins, retinal-based photosystems found in heterotrophs, suggesting that sunlight may provide energy for more life than previously suspected. However, quantitative data on the number of cells that produce rhodopsins in environmental systems are limited. Here, we use total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to show that the number of free-living microbes that produce rhodopsins increases along the salinity gradient in the Chesapeake Bay. We correlate this functional data with environmen

SUBMITTER: Maresca JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6007120 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature