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- Zielinski, Brian L., et al.
(författare)
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Patterns of Transcript Abundance of Eukaryotic Biogeochemically-Relevant Genes in the Amazon River Plume
- 2016
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 11:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Amazon River has the largest discharge of all rivers on Earth, and its complex plume system fuels a wide array of biogeochemical processes, across a large area of the western tropical North Atlantic. The plume thus stimulates microbial processes affecting carbon sequestration and nutrient cycles at a global scale. Chromosomal gene expression patterns of the 2.0 to 156 mu m size-fraction eukaryotic microbial community were investigated in the Amazon River Plume, generating a robust dataset (more than 100 million mRNA sequences) that depicts the metabolic capabilities and interactions among the eukaryotic microbes. Combining classical oceanographic field measurements with metatranscriptomics yielded characterization of the hydrographic conditions simultaneous with a quantification of transcriptional activity and identity of the community. We highlight the patterns of eukaryotic gene expression for 31 biogeochemically significant gene targets hypothesized to be valuable within forecasting models. An advantage to this targeted approach is that the database of reference sequences used to identify the target genes was selectively constructed and highly curated optimizing taxonomic coverage, throughput, and the accuracy of annotations. A coastal diatom bloom highly expressed nitrate transporters and carbonic anhydrase presumably to support high growth rates and enhance uptake of low levels of dissolved nitrate and CO2. Diatom-diazotroph association (DDA: diatoms with nitrogen fixing symbionts) blooms were common when surface salinity was mesohaline and dissolved nitrate concentrations were below detection, and hence did not show evidence of nitrate utilization, suggesting they relied on ammonium transporters to aquire recently fixed nitrogen. These DDA blooms in the outer plume had rapid turnover of the photosystem D1 protein presumably caused by photodegradation under increased light penetration in clearer waters, and increased expression of silicon transporters as silicon became limiting. Expression of these genes, including carbonic anhydrase and transporters for nitrate and phosphate, were found to reflect the physiological status and biogeochemistry of river plume environments. These relatively stable patterns of eukaryotic transcript abundance occurred over modest spatiotemporal scales, with similarity observed in sample duplicates collected up to 2.45 km in space and 120 minutes in time. These results confirm the use of metatranscriptomics as a valuable tool to understand and predict microbial community function.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Richert, Inga, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of light and water mass on bacterial population dynamics in the Amundsen Sea Polynya
- 2015
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Ingår i: Elementa. - : University of California Press. - 2325-1026. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite being perpetually cold, seasonally ice-covered and dark, the coastal Southern Ocean is highly productive and harbors a diverse microbiota. During the austral summer, ice-free coastal patches (or polynyas) form, exposing pelagic organisms to sunlight, triggering intense phytoplankton blooms. This strong seasonality is likely to influence bacterioplankton community composition (BCC). For the most part, we do not fully understand the environmental drivers controlling high-latitude BCC and the biogeochemical cycles they mediate. In this study, the Amundsen Sea Polynya was used as a model system to investigate important environmental factors that shape the coastal Southern Ocean microbiota. Population dynamics in terms of occurrence and activity of abundant taxa was studied in both environmental samples and microcosm experiments by using 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. We found that the BCC in the photic epipelagic zone had low richness, with dominant bacterial populations being related to taxa known to benefit from high organic carbon and nutrient loads (copiotrophs). In contrast, the BCC in deeper mesopelagic water masses had higher richness, featuring taxa known to benefit from low organic carbon and nutrient loads (oligotrophs). Incubation experiments indicated that direct impacts of light and competition for organic nutrients are two important factors shaping BCC in the Amundsen Sea Polynya.
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| 4. |
- Stenegren, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Piecewise structural equation model (SEM) disentangles the environmental conditions favoring diatom diazotroph associations (DDAs) in the western tropical North Atlantic (WTNA)
- 2017
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diatom diazotroph associations (DDAs) are important components in the world's oceans, especially in the western tropical north Atlantic (WTNA), where blooms have a significant impact on carbon and nitrogen cycling. However, drivers of their abundances and distribution patterns remain unknown. Here, we examined abundance and distribution patterns for two DDA populations in relation to the Amazon River (AR) plume in the WTNA. Quantitative PCR assays, targeting two DDAs (het-1 and het-2) by their symbiont's nifH gene, served as input in a piecewise structural equation model (SEM). Collections were made during high (spring 2010) and low (fall 2011) flow discharges of the AR. The distributions of dissolved nutrients, chlorophyll-a, and DDAs showed coherent patterns indicative of areas influenced by the AR. A symbiotic Hemiaulus hauckii-Richelia (het-2) bloom (> 10(6) cells L-1) occurred during higher discharge of the AR and was coincident with mesohaline to oceanic (30-35) sea surface salinities (SSS), and regions devoid of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), low concentrations of both DIP (> 0.1 mu mol L-1) and Si (> 1.0 mu mol L-1). The Richelia (het-1) associated with Rhizosolenia was only present in 2010 and at lower densities (10-1.76 x 10(5) nifH copies L-1) than het-2 and limited to regions of oceanic SSS (> 36). The het-2 symbiont detected in 2011 was associated with H. membranaceus (> 10(3) nifH copies L-1) and were restricted to regions with mesohaline SSS (31.8-34.3), immeasurable DIN, moderate DIP (0.1-0.60 mu mol L-1) and higher Si (4.19-22.1 mu mol L-1). The piecewise SEM identified a profound direct negative effect of turbidity on the het-2 abundance in spring 2010, while DIP and water turbidity had a more positive influence in fall 2011, corroborating our observations of DDAs at subsurface maximas. We also found a striking difference in the influence of salinity on DDA symbionts suggesting a niche differentiation and preferences in oceanic and mesohaline salinities by het-1 and het-2, respectively. The use of the piecewise SEM to disentangle the complex and concomitant hydrography of the WTNA acting on two biogeochemically relevant populations was novel and underscores its use to predict conditions favoring abundance and distributions of microbial populations.
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