Project description:Prochlorococcus marinus is a highly abundant picocyanobacterium in Earth’s oceans and therefore a significant contributor to global primary production. This organism exists as different ecotypes, each occupying particular environments in the euphotic zone that differ in both solar penetration and nutrient levels. The ecotypes analysed here were isolated from depths of 5 m (MED4), 135 m (MIT9313) and 120 m (SS120) and cultured at low illumination. MED4, adapted to high light levels closer to the surface, was compared at both low and high illumination. In contrast to other cyanobacteria such as Synechocystis with a dominance of photosystem I (PSI) over photosystem II (PSII) complexes in the thylakoid membranes, MED4 and MIT9313 showed about equal levels. In MED4, the relative levels were almost the same in both the high and low light cultures. SS120 thylakoids contained a lower cytochrome b6f content and around two-fold more PSII than PSI. Additionally a significantly higher abundance of light-harvesting Pcb proteins was found in SS120 than the other ecotypes. This proteomic comparison was employed in conjunction with thylakoid membrane AFM imaging to rationalize the strategies these ecotypes use to survive in the different oceanic environments.
Project description:Prochlorococcus is an abundant, cosmopolitan, marine cyanobacterium with ecotypes that vary temporally and spatially across oligotrophic regions of the global ocean. This group of organisms can serve as a model system to understand the accumulation of organic compounds synthesized by primary producers in marine ecosystems. We applied targeted metabolomics to three axenic cultures of strains that span the Prochlorococcus phylogeny: a high-light adapted HLII-clade strain, a low-light adapted LLI-clade strain, and a low-light adapted LLIV-clade strain. Intracellular metabolites were extracted from cells captured in exponential growth and extracellular metabolites were adsorbed, from the same samples, to solid-phase extraction resin. Both pools were quantified using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The resulting data reveal intraspecific differences in metabolites that provide clues about the selective pressures shaping the meta-metabolism of the Prochlorococcus collective, and its interactions with the surrounding microbes that depend on them.
Project description:Prochlorococcus is an abundant, cosmopolitan, marine cyanobacterium with ecotypes that vary temporally and spatially across oligotrophic regions of the global ocean. This group of organisms can serve as a model system to understand the accumulation of organic compounds synthesized by primary producers in marine ecosystems. We applied targeted metabolomics to three axenic cultures of strains that span the Prochlorococcus phylogeny: a high-light adapted HLII-clade strain, a low-light adapted LLI-clade strain, and a low-light adapted LLIV-clade strain. Intracellular metabolites were extracted from cells captured in exponential growth and extracellular metabolites were adsorbed, from the same samples, to solid-phase extraction resin. Both pools were quantified using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The resulting data reveal intraspecific differences in metabolites that provide clues about the selective pressures shaping the meta-metabolism of the Prochlorococcus collective, and its interactions with the surrounding microbes that depend on them.
Project description:Prochlorococcus marinus, the smallest picocyanobacterium, comprises multiple clades occupying distinct niches, currently across tropical and sub-tropical oligotrophic ocean regions, including Oxygen Minimum Zones. Ocean warming may open growth-permissive temperatures in new, poleward photic regimes, along with expanded Oxygen Minimum Zones. We used ocean metaproteomic data on current Prochlorococcus marinus niches, to guide testing of Prochlorococcus marinus growth across a matrix of peak irradiances, photoperiods, spectral bands and dissolved oxygen. MED4 from Clade HLI requires greater than 4 h photoperiod, grows at 25 μmol O2 L-1 and above, and exploits high cumulative diel photon doses. MED4, however, relies upon an alternative oxidase to balance electron transport, which may exclude it from growth under our lowest, 2.5 μmol O2 L-1, condition. SS120 from clade LLII/III is restricted to low light under full 250 μmol O2 L-1, shows expanded light exploitation under 25 μmol O2 L-1, but is excluded from growth under 2.5 μmol O2 L-1. Intermediate oxygen suppresses the cost of PSII photoinactivation, and possibly the enzymatic production of H2O2 in SS120, which has limitations on genomic capacity for PSII and DNA repair. MIT9313 from Clade LLIV is restricted to low blue irradiance under 250 μmol O2 L-1, but exploits much higher irradiance under red light, or under lower O2 concentrations, conditions which slow photoinactivation of PSII and production of reactive oxygen species. In warming oceans, range expansions and competition among clades will be governed not only by light levels. Short photoperiods governed by latitude, temperate winters, and depth attenuation of light, will exclude clade HLI (including MED4) from some habitats. In contrast, clade LLII/III (including SS120), and particularly clade LLIV (including MIT9313), may exploit higher light niches nearer the surface, under expanding OMZ conditions, where low O2 relieves the stresses of oxidation stress and PSII photoinhibition.