Dataset Information

Production of Two Highly Abundant 2-Methyl-Branched Fatty Acids by Blooms of the Globally Significant Marine Cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum.

ABSTRACT: The bloom-forming cyanobacteria Trichodesmium contribute up to 30% to the total fixed nitrogen in the global oceans and thereby drive substantial productivity. On an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico, we observed and sampled surface slicks, some of which included dense blooms of Trichodesmium erythraeum. These bloom samples contained abundant and atypical free fatty acids, identified here as 2-methyldecanoic acid and 2-methyldodecanoic acid. The high abundance and unusual branching pattern of these compounds suggest that they may play a specific role in this globally important organism.

SUBMITTER: Gosselin KM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8427776 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Production of Two Highly Abundant 2-Methyl-Branched Fatty Acids by Blooms of the Globally Significant Marine Cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum.

Gosselin Kelsey M KM Nelson Robert K RK Spivak Amanda C AC Sylva Sean P SP Van Mooy Benjamin A S BAS Aeppli Christoph C Sharpless Charles M CM O'Neil Gregory W GW Arrington Eleanor C EC Reddy Christopher M CM Valentine David L DL

ACS omega 20210826 35

The bloom-forming cyanobacteria Trichodesmium contribute up to 30% to the total fixed nitrogen in the global oceans and thereby drive substantial productivity. On an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico, we observed and sampled surface slicks, some of which included dense blooms of Trichodesmium erythraeum. These bloom samples contained abundant and atypical free fatty acids, identified here as 2-methyldecanoic acid and 2-methyldodecanoic acid. The high abundance and unusual branching ...[more]

PMID: 34514251

Similar Datasets

Project description:Trichodesmium plays a significant role in the oligotrophic oceans, fixing nitrogen in an area corresponding to half of the Earth's surface, representing up to 50% of new production in some oligotrophic tropical and subtropical oceans. Whilst Trichodesmium blooms at the surface exhibit a strong dependence on diazotrophy, colonies at depth or at the surface after a mixing event could be utilising additional N-sources. We conducted experiments to establish how acclimation to varying N-sources affects the growth, elemental composition, light absorption coefficient, N2 fixation, PSII electron transport rate and the relationship between net and gross photosynthetic O2 exchange in T. erythraeum IMS101. To do this, cultures were acclimated to growth medium containing NH4+ and NO3- (replete concentrations) or N2 only (diazotrophic control). The light dependencies of O2 evolution and O2 uptake were measured using membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS), while PSII electron transport rates were measured from fluorescence light curves (FLCs). We found that at a saturating light intensity, Trichodesmium growth was ~ 10% and 13% lower when grown on N2 than with NH4+ and NO3-, respectively. Oxygen uptake increased linearly with net photosynthesis across all light intensities ranging from darkness to 1100 μmol photons m-2 s-1. The maximum rates and initial slopes of light response curves for C-specific gross and net photosynthesis and the slope of the relationship between gross and net photosynthesis increased significantly under non-diazotrophic conditions. We attribute these observations to a reduced expenditure of reductant and ATP for nitrogenase activity under non-diazotrophic conditions which allows NADPH and ATP to be re-directed to CO2 fixation and/or biosynthesis. The energy and reductant conserved through utilising additional N-sources could enhance Trichodesmium's productivity and growth and have major implications for its role in ocean C and N cycles.

Dataset Information

Production of Two Highly Abundant 2-Methyl-Branched Fatty Acids by Blooms of the Globally Significant Marine Cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum.

Publications

Production of Two Highly Abundant 2-Methyl-Branched Fatty Acids by Blooms of the Globally Significant Marine Cyanobacteria <i>Trichodesmium erythraeum</i>.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets