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Collective sinking promotes selective cell pairing in planktonic pennate diatoms.

ABSTRACT: Finding a partner in an inherently unsteady 3-dimensional system, such as the planktonic marine environment, is a difficult task for nonswimming organisms with poor control over their orientation. We experimentally investigate the process of cell pairing in pennate marine diatoms and present field evidence of its occurrence in the ocean. We describe the mechanism as a 3-step process in which pennate diatoms (i) vertically reorient while sinking from surface turbulent waters to a more stable environment (i.e., under the seasonal pycnocline), (ii) segregate from incompatible partners (e.g., dead or different sized cells), and (iii) pair with other partners as a result of the hydrodynamic instabilities generated by collective cell sinking. This is, eminently, a cell abundance-dependent process, therefore being more effective when population sinking is synchronized. We suggest that this selective process, enabling matching of size-compatible healthy partners, could be fundamental in understanding sexual reproduction in pennate diatoms.

SUBMITTER: Font-Munoz JS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6689993 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Collective sinking promotes selective cell pairing in planktonic pennate diatoms.

Font-Muñoz Joan S JS Jeanneret Raphaël R Arrieta Jorge J Anglès Sílvia S Jordi Antoni A Tuval Idan I Basterretxea Gotzon G

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190725 32

Finding a partner in an inherently unsteady 3-dimensional system, such as the planktonic marine environment, is a difficult task for nonswimming organisms with poor control over their orientation. We experimentally investigate the process of cell pairing in pennate marine diatoms and present field evidence of its occurrence in the ocean. We describe the mechanism as a 3-step process in which pennate diatoms (<i>i</i>) vertically reorient while sinking from surface turbulent waters to a more stab ...[more]

PMID: 31346087

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Dataset Information

Collective sinking promotes selective cell pairing in planktonic pennate diatoms.

Publications

Collective sinking promotes selective cell pairing in planktonic pennate diatoms.

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