Marine Community Metabolomes Carry Fingerprints of Phytoplankton Community Composition.

ABSTRACT: Phytoplankton transform inorganic carbon into thousands of biomolecules that represent an important pool of fixed carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in the surface ocean. Metabolite production differs between phytoplankton, and the flux of these molecules through the microbial food web depends on compound-specific bioavailability to members of a wider microbial community. Yet relatively little is known about the diversity or concentration of metabolites within marine plankton. Here, we compare 313 polar metabolites in 21 cultured phytoplankton species and in natural planktonic communities across environmental gradients to show that bulk community metabolomes reflect the chemical composition of the phytoplankton community. We also show that groups of compounds have similar patterns across space a

SUBMITTER: Heal KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8269262 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature