Brian Palenik

The genome of a motile marine Synechococcus

Marine unicellular cyanobacteria are responsible for an estimated 20–40% of chlorophyll biomass and carbon fixation in the oceans. Here we have sequenced and analysed the 2.4-megabase genome of Synechococcus sp. strain WH8102, revealing some of the ways that these organisms have adapted to their largely oligotrophic environment. WH8102 uses organic nitrogen and phosphorus sources and more sodium-dependent transporters than a model freshwater cyanobacterium. Furthermore, it seems to have adopted strategies for conserving limited iron stores by using nickel and cobalt in some enzymes, has reduced its regulatory machinery (consistent with the fact that the open ocean constitutes a far more constant and buffered environment than fresh water), and has evolved a unique type of swimming motility. The genome of WH8102 seems to have been greatly influenced by horizontal gene transfer, partially through phages. The genetic material contributed by horizontal gene transfer includes genes involved in the modification of the cell surface and in swimming motility. On the basis of its genome, WH8102 is more of a generalist than two related marine cyanobacteria.

The tiny eukaryote Ostreococcus provides genomic insights into the paradox of plankton speciation

The smallest known eukaryotes, at ≈1-μm diameter, are Ostreococcus tauri and related species of marine phytoplankton. The genome of Ostreococcus lucimarinus has been completed and compared with that of O. tauri. This comparison reveals surprising differences across orthologous chromosomes in the two species from highly syntenic chromosomes in most cases to chromosomes with almost no similarity. Species divergence in these phytoplankton is occurring through multiple mechanisms acting differently on different chromosomes and likely including acquisition of new genes through horizontal gene transfer. We speculate that this latter process may be involved in altering the cell-surface characteristics of each species. In addition, the genome of O. lucimarinus provides insights into the unique metal metabolism of these organisms, which are predicted to have a large number of selenocysteine-containing proteins. Selenoenzymes are more catalytically active than similar enzymes lacking selenium, and thus the cell may require less of that protein. As reported here, selenoenzymes, novel fusion proteins, and loss of some major protein families including ones associated with chromatin are likely important adaptations for achieving a small cell size.

Preparation and Chemistry of the Artificial Algal Culture Medium Aquil

AbstractThe culture medium Aquil has been designed for studying trace metal physiology in algae. We describe recent modifications in the preparation of Aquil and discuss processes that affect its trace metals and their physiological effects. The major changes in Aquil preparation are purification of the Chelex column to avoid contamination by chelating agents, use of alternative sterilization procedures, and increases in the concentration of trace metal buffers. During growth, phytoplankton take up trace metals, thus continuously reducing their concentrations in the medium. Algae can also modify the redox state and degree of organic complexation of trace metals through the direct and indirect activity of cell surface enzymes and the release of metabolites. Illumination of the culture medium necessary to promote photosynthesis also promotes a variety of photochemical reactions that alter the chemistry of the medium and maintain it in a state of disequilibrium. In particular, light absorption by FeEDTA lead...

The Marine Microbial Eukaryote Transcriptome Sequencing Project (MMETSP): Illuminating the Functional Diversity of Eukaryotic Life in the Oceans through Transcriptome Sequencing.

Current sampling of genomic sequence data from eukaryotes is relatively poor, biased, and inadequate to address important questions about their biology, evolution, and ecology; this Community Page describes a resource of 700 transcriptomes from marine microbial eukaryotes to help understand their role in the worlds oceans.

Genome sequence of Synechococcus CC9311: Insights into adaptation to a coastal environment.

Coastal aquatic environments are typically more highly productive and dynamic than open ocean ones. Despite these differences, cyanobacteria from the genus Synechococcus are important primary producers in both types of ecosystems. We have found that the genome of a coastal cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp. strain CC9311, has significant differences from an open ocean strain, Synechococcus sp. strain WH8102, and these are consistent with the differences between their respective environments. CC9311 has a greater capacity to sense and respond to changes in its (coastal) environment. It has a much larger capacity to transport, store, use, or export metals, especially iron and copper. In contrast, phosphate acquisition seems less important, consistent with the higher concentration of phosphate in coastal environments. CC9311 is predicted to have differences in its outer membrane lipopolysaccharide, and this may be characteristic of the speciation of some cyanobacterial groups. In addition, the types of potentially horizontally transferred genes are markedly different between the coastal and open ocean genomes and suggest a more prominent role for phages in horizontal gene transfer in oligotrophic environments.

Bringing the ocean into the laboratory to probe the chemical complexity of sea spray aerosol

The production, size, and chemical composition of sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles strongly depend on seawater chemistry, which is controlled by physical, chemical, and biological processes. Despite decades of studies in marine environments, a direct relationship has yet to be established between ocean biology and the physicochemical properties of SSA. The ability to establish such relationships is hindered by the fact that SSA measurements are typically dominated by overwhelming background aerosol concentrations even in remote marine environments. Herein, we describe a newly developed approach for reproducing the chemical complexity of SSA in a laboratory setting, comprising a unique ocean-atmosphere facility equipped with actual breaking waves. A mesocosm experiment was performed in natural seawater, using controlled phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria concentrations, which showed SSA size and chemical mixing state are acutely sensitive to the aerosol production mechanism, as well as to the type of biological species present. The largest reduction in the hygroscopicity of SSA occurred as heterotrophic bacteria concentrations increased, whereas phytoplankton and chlorophyll-a concentrations decreased, directly corresponding to a change in mixing state in the smallest (60–180 nm) size range. Using this newly developed approach to generate realistic SSA, systematic studies can now be performed to advance our fundamental understanding of the impact of ocean biology on SSA chemical mixing state, heterogeneous reactivity, and the resulting climate-relevant properties.

Niche adaptation in ocean cyanobacteria

Small unicellular cyanobacteria (Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus ) are the most abundant photosynthetic microorganisms in the worlds oceans, yet we know little of the genetic structure of these populations. Here we show that distinct clades of Prochlorococcus, and possibly of Synechococcus, are adapted to their specific surface and deep oceanic niches.

Modern proteomes contain putative imprints of ancient shifts in trace metal geochemistry.

Because of the rise in atmospheric oxygen 2.3 billion years ago (Gya) and the subsequent changes in oceanic redox state over the last 2.3–1 Gya, trace metal bioavailability in marine environments has changed dramatically. Although theorized to have influenced the biological usage of metals leaving discernable genomic signals, a thorough and quantitative test of this hypothesis has been lacking. Using structural bioinformatics and whole-genome sequences, the Fe-, Zn-, Mn-, and Co-binding metallomes of 23 Archaea, 233 Bacteria, and 57 Eukarya were constructed. These metallomes reveal that the overall abundances of these metal-binding structures scale to proteome size as power laws with a unique set of slopes for each Superkingdom of Life. The differences in the power describing the abundances of Fe-, Mn-, Zn-, and Co-binding proteins in the proteomes of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes are similar to the theorized changes in the abundances of these metals after the oxygenation of oceanic deep waters. This phenomenon suggests that Prokarya and Eukarya evolved in anoxic and oxic environments, respectively, a hypothesis further supported by structures and functions of Fe-binding proteins in each Superkingdom. Also observed is a proliferation in the diversity of Zn-binding protein structures involved in protein–DNA and protein–protein interactions within Eukarya, an event unlikely to occur in either an anoxic or euxinic environment where Zn concentrations would be vanishingly low. We hypothesize that these conserved trends are proteomic imprints of changes in trace metal bioavailability in the ancient ocean that highlight a major evolutionary shift in biological trace metal usage.

Chromatic adaptation in marine Synechococcus strains.

ABSTRACT Characterization of two genetically distinct groups of marineSynechococcus sp. strains shows that one, but not the other, increases its phycourobilin/phycoerythrobilin chromophore ratio when growing in blue light. This ability of at least some marineSynechococcus strains to chromatically adapt may help explain their greater abundance in particular ocean environments than cyanobacteria of the genus Prochlorococcus.

The marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. WH7805 requires urease (urea amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.5) to utilize urea as a nitrogen source: molecular-genetic and biochemical analysis of the enzyme.

Cyanobacteria assigned to the genus Synechococcus are an important component of oligotrophic marine ecosystems, where their growth may be constrained by low availability of fixed nitrogen. Urea appears to be a major nitrogen resource in the sea, but little molecular information exists about its utilization by marine organisms, including Synechococcus. Oligonucleotide primers were used to amplify a conserved fragment of the urease (urea amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.5) coding region from cyanobacteria. A 5.7 kbp region of the genome of the unicellular marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain WH7805 was then cloned, and genes encoding three urease structural subunits and four urease accessory proteins were sequenced and identified by homology. The WH7805 urease had a predicted subunit composition typical of bacterial ureases, but the organization of the WH7805 urease genes was unique. Biochemical characteristics of the WH7805 urease enzyme were consistent with the predictions of the sequence data. Physiological data and sequence analysis both suggested that the urease operon may be nitrogen-regulated by the ntcA system in WH7805. Inactivation of the large subunit of urease, ureC, prevented WH7805 and Synechococcus WH8102 from growing on urea, demonstrating that the urease genes cloned are essential to the ability of these cyanobacteria to utilize urea as a nitrogen source.