Journal article
Chemotaxis increases metabolic exchanges between marine picophytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria
JB Raina, M Giardina, DR Brumley, PL Clode, M Pernice, P Guagliardo, J Bougoure, H Mendis, S Smriga, EC Sonnenschein, MS Ullrich, R Stocker, JR Seymour
Nature Microbiology | Published : 2023
Abstract
Behaviours such as chemotaxis can facilitate metabolic exchanges between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria, which ultimately regulate oceanic productivity and biogeochemistry. However, numerically dominant picophytoplankton have been considered too small to be detected by chemotactic bacteria, implying that cell–cell interactions might not be possible between some of the most abundant organisms in the ocean. Here we examined how bacterial behaviour influences metabolic exchanges at the single-cell level between the ubiquitous picophytoplankton Synechococcus and the heterotrophic bacterium Marinobacter adhaerens, using bacterial mutants deficient in motility and chemotaxis. Stable-isot..
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Awarded by Simons Foundation
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors thank F. Carrara and A. Hein for useful discussions. This work was supported by an Australian Research Council grant (DP180100838) to J.R.S. and J.-B.R. J.-B.R. was supported by an Australian Research Council Fellowship (FT210100100). D.R.B. was supported by an Australian Research Council Fellowship (DE180100911). D.R.B. performed simulations using The University of Melbourne's High-Performance Computer Spartan (https://doi.org/10.4225/49/58ead90dceaaa). R.S. acknowledges support from a grant by the Simons Foundation (542395) as part of the Principles of Microbial Ecosystems Collaborative (PriME), a Gordon and Betty Moore Symbiosis in Aquatic Ecosystems Initiative Investigator Award (GBMF9197; https://doi.org/10.37807/GBMF9197) and a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (315230_176189). We acknowledge use of the Microscopy Australia Ion Probe Facility at The University of Western Australia, a facility funded by the University, State and Commonwealth Governments. This project used NCRIS-enabled Metabolomics Australia infrastructure at the University of Melbourne, funded through BioPlatforms Australia.