ALBERT

Description: Phosphate (PO 4) is an important limiting nutrient in marine environments. Marine cyanobacteria scavenge PO 4 using the high-affinity periplasmic phosphate binding protein PstS. The pstS gene has recently been identified in genomes of cyanobacterial viruses as well. Here, we analyse genes encoding transporters in genomes from viruses that infect eukaryotic phytoplankton. We identified inorganic PO 4 transporter-encoding genes from the PHO4 superfamily in several virus genomes, along with other transporter-encoding genes. Homologues of the viral pho4 genes were also identified in genome sequences from the genera that these viruses infect. Genome sequences were available from host genera of all the phytoplankton viruses analysed except the host genus Bathycoccus. Pho4 was recovered from Bathycoccus by sequencing a targeted metagenome from an uncultured Atlantic Ocean population. Phylogenetic reconstruction showed that pho4 genes from pelagophytes, haptophytes and infecting viruses were more closely related to homologues in prasinophytes than to those in what, at the species level, are considered to be closer relatives (e.g. diatoms). We also identified PHO4 superfamily members in ocean metagenomes, including new metagenomes from the Pacific Ocean. The environmental sequences grouped with pelagophytes, haptophytes, prasinophytes and viruses as well as bacteria. The analyses suggest that multiple independent pho4 gene transfer events have occurred between marine viruses and both eukaryotic and bacterial hosts. Additionally, pho4 genes were identified in available genomes from viruses that infect marine eukaryotes but not those that infect terrestrial hosts. Commonalities in marine host-virus gene exchanges indicate that manipulation of host-PO 4 uptake is an important adaptation for viral proliferation in marine systems. Our findings suggest that PO 4-availability may not serve as a simple bottom-up control of marine phytoplankton. © 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Description: Picoeukaryotes are a taxonomically diverse group of organism less than 2 micrometers in diameter. Photosynthetic marine picoeukaryotes in the genus Micromonas thrive in ecosystems ranging from tropical to polar and could serve as sentinel organisms for biogeochemical fluxes of modern oceans during climate change. These broadly distributed primary producers belong to an anciently diverged sister clade to land plants. Although Micromonas isolates have high 18S ribosomal RNA gene identity, we found that genomes from two isolates shared only 90 of their predicted genes. Their independent evolutionary paths were emphasized by distinct riboswitch arrangements as well as the discovery of intronic repeat elements in one isolate, and in metagenomic data, but not in other genomes. Divergence appears to have been facilitated by selection and acquisition processes that actively shape the repertoire of genes that are mutually exclusive between the two isolates differently than the core genes. Analyses of the Micromonas genomes offer valuable insights into ecological differentiation and the dynamic nature of early plant evolution.

Description: Ostreococcus is a marine picophytoeukaryote for which culture studies indicate there are 'high-light' and 'low-light' adapted ecotypes. Representatives of these ecotypes fall within two to three 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clades for the former and one for the latter. However, clade distributions and relationships to this form of niche partitioning are unknown in nature. We developed two quantitative PCR primer-probe sets and enumerated the proposed ecotypes in the Pacific Ocean as well as the subtropical and tropical North Atlantic. Statistical differences in factors such as salinity, temperature and NO 3 indicated the ecophysiological parameters behind clade distributions are more complex than irradiance alone. Clade OII, containing the putatively low-light adapted strains, was detected at warm oligotrophic sites. In contrast, Clade OI, containing high-light adapted strains, was present in cooler mesotrophic and coastal waters. Maximal OI abundance (19 555±37 18S rDNA copies per ml) was detected in mesotrophic waters at 40 m depth, approaching the nutricline. OII was often more abundant at the deep chlorophyll maximum, when nutrient concentrations were significantly higher than at the surface (stratified euphotic zone waters). However, in mixed euphotic-zone water columns, relatively high numbers (for example, 891±107 18S rDNA copies per ml, Sargasso Sea, springtime) were detected at the surface. Both Clades OI and OII were found at multiple euphotic zone depths, but co-occurrence at the same geographical location appeared rare and was detected only in continental slope waters. In situ growth rate estimates using these primer-probes and better comprehension of physiology will enhance ecological understanding of Ostreococcus Clades OII and OI which appear to be oceanic and coastal clades, respectively. © 2011 International Society for Microbial Ecology. All rights reserved.

Description: Upper-ocean fronts are dynamically active features of the global ocean that have significant implications for air-sea interactions, vertical mass and heat transfers, stratification and phytoplankton production and export. Their small dimensions and short duration have limited our capacity of observing, modelling and understanding fully these processes and their impact. To address this challenge, five Saildrones - which are uncrewed platforms instrumented to measure the air-sea interface – were deployed during the EUREC4A-OA/ATOMIC field experiment in the Northwest Tropical Atlantic in winter 2020. This region is strongly affected by the outflow of the Amazon River, leading to the generation of fine-scale horizontal thermohaline gradients with the stirring of this freshwater input by large anticyclonic eddies. Very intense gradients, including at the smaller spatial scales, were measured. The coherence of temperature and salinity fronts was estimated by a wavelet transform analysis which revealed large-scale density fronts are primarily controlled by salinity but with increasing temperature-salinity coherence at the small scales range of the spectrum (O (0.1 km)) for strong gradients whereas they are poorly correlated for weaker fronts. Our study shows that processes such as the mixed layer depth, the diurnal cycle, and air-sea exchanges are strongly affected by these small-scale frontal regimes. The parallel and quasi synchronous tracks of a 4-Saildrone formation provide a detailed picture of the upper ocean vorticity, divergence, and strain from their ADCP current measurements. Overall the methodology developed could be extended on other datasets to assess the phenomenology of fine-scale structures in other dynamical regions.