Mechanisms of increased Trichodesmium fitness under iron and phosphorus co-limitation in the present and future ocean

Nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria supplies critical bioavailable nitrogen to marine ecosystems worldwide; however, field and lab data have demonstrated it to be limited by iron, phosphorus and/or CO(2). To address unknown future interactions among these factors, we grew the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium for 1 year under Fe/P co-limitation following 7 years of both low and high CO(2) selection. Fe/P co-limited cell lines demonstrated a complex cellular response including increased growth rates, broad proteome restructuring and cell size reductions relative to steady-state growth limited by either Fe or P alone. Fe/P co-limitation increased abundance of a protein containing a conserved domain previously implicated in cell size regulation, suggesting a similar role in Trichodesmium. Increased CO(2) further induced nutrient-limited proteome shifts in widespread core metabolisms. Our results thus suggest that N(2)-fixing microbes may be significantly impacted by interactions between elevated CO(2) and nutrient limitation, with broad implications for global biogeochemical cycles in the future ocean.