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Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities

Phaeocystis pouchetii (Hariot) Lagerheim, 1893 regularly dominates phytoplankton blooms in higher latitudes spanning from the English Channel to the Arctic. Through zooplankton grazing and microbial activity, it is considered to be a key resource for the entire marine food web, but the actual releva...

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Autores principales: Kuhlisch, Constanze, Althammer, Julia, Sazhin, Andrey F., Jakobsen, Hans H., Nejstgaard, Jens C., Pohnert, Georg
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7686483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33235278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77169-w
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author Kuhlisch, Constanze
Althammer, Julia
Sazhin, Andrey F.
Jakobsen, Hans H.
Nejstgaard, Jens C.
Pohnert, Georg
author_facet Kuhlisch, Constanze
Althammer, Julia
Sazhin, Andrey F.
Jakobsen, Hans H.
Nejstgaard, Jens C.
Pohnert, Georg
author_sort Kuhlisch, Constanze
collection PubMed
description Phaeocystis pouchetii (Hariot) Lagerheim, 1893 regularly dominates phytoplankton blooms in higher latitudes spanning from the English Channel to the Arctic. Through zooplankton grazing and microbial activity, it is considered to be a key resource for the entire marine food web, but the actual relevance of biomass transfer to higher trophic levels is still under discussion. Cell physiology and algal nutritional state are suggested to be major factors controlling the observed variability in zooplankton grazing. However, no data have so far yielded insights into the metabolic state of Phaeocystis populations that would allow testing this hypothesis. Therefore, endometabolic markers of different growth phases were determined in laboratory batch cultures using comparative metabolomics and quantified in different phytoplankton blooms in the field. Metabolites, produced during exponential, early and late stationary growth of P. pouchetii, were profiled using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Then, metabolites were characterized that correlate with the growth phases using multivariate statistical analysis. Free amino acids characterized the exponential growth, whereas the early stationary phase was correlated with sugar alcohols, mono- and disaccharides. In the late stationary phase, free fatty acids, sterols and terpenes increased. These marker metabolites were then traced in Phaeocystis blooms during a cruise in the Barents Sea and North Norwegian fjords. About 50 endometabolites of P. pouchetii were detected in natural phytoplankton communities. Mannitol, scyllo-inositol, 24-methylcholesta-5,22-dien-3β-ol, and several free fatty acids were characteristic for Phaeocystis-dominated blooms but showed variability between them. Distinct metabolic profiles were detected in the nutrient-depleted community in the inner Porsangerfjord (< 0.5 µM NO(3)(−), < 0.1 µM PO(4)(3−)), with high relative amounts of free mono- and disaccharides indicative for a limited culture. This study thereby shows how the variable physiology of phytoplankton can alter the metabolic landscape of entire plankton communities.
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spelling pubmed-76864832020-11-27 Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities Kuhlisch, Constanze Althammer, Julia Sazhin, Andrey F. Jakobsen, Hans H. Nejstgaard, Jens C. Pohnert, Georg Sci Rep Article Phaeocystis pouchetii (Hariot) Lagerheim, 1893 regularly dominates phytoplankton blooms in higher latitudes spanning from the English Channel to the Arctic. Through zooplankton grazing and microbial activity, it is considered to be a key resource for the entire marine food web, but the actual relevance of biomass transfer to higher trophic levels is still under discussion. Cell physiology and algal nutritional state are suggested to be major factors controlling the observed variability in zooplankton grazing. However, no data have so far yielded insights into the metabolic state of Phaeocystis populations that would allow testing this hypothesis. Therefore, endometabolic markers of different growth phases were determined in laboratory batch cultures using comparative metabolomics and quantified in different phytoplankton blooms in the field. Metabolites, produced during exponential, early and late stationary growth of P. pouchetii, were profiled using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Then, metabolites were characterized that correlate with the growth phases using multivariate statistical analysis. Free amino acids characterized the exponential growth, whereas the early stationary phase was correlated with sugar alcohols, mono- and disaccharides. In the late stationary phase, free fatty acids, sterols and terpenes increased. These marker metabolites were then traced in Phaeocystis blooms during a cruise in the Barents Sea and North Norwegian fjords. About 50 endometabolites of P. pouchetii were detected in natural phytoplankton communities. Mannitol, scyllo-inositol, 24-methylcholesta-5,22-dien-3β-ol, and several free fatty acids were characteristic for Phaeocystis-dominated blooms but showed variability between them. Distinct metabolic profiles were detected in the nutrient-depleted community in the inner Porsangerfjord (< 0.5 µM NO(3)(−), < 0.1 µM PO(4)(3−)), with high relative amounts of free mono- and disaccharides indicative for a limited culture. This study thereby shows how the variable physiology of phytoplankton can alter the metabolic landscape of entire plankton communities. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7686483/ /pubmed/33235278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77169-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Kuhlisch, Constanze
Althammer, Julia
Sazhin, Andrey F.
Jakobsen, Hans H.
Nejstgaard, Jens C.
Pohnert, Georg
Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title_full Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title_fullStr Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title_full_unstemmed Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title_short Metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize Phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
title_sort metabolomics-derived marker metabolites to characterize phaeocystis pouchetii physiology in natural plankton communities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7686483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33235278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77169-w
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