Single-cell bacterial transcription measurementsreveal the importance of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) hotspots in ocean sulfur cycling
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s41467-020-15693-z.pdf
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Author(s)
Gao, Cherry
Date Issued
April 2020
Journal
Nature communications
Citation
Gao, Cherry, et al., "Single-cell bacterial transcription measurementsreveal the importance of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) hotspots in ocean sulfur cycling." Nature communications 11 (2020): no. 1942 doi 10.1038/s41467-020-15693-z ©2020 Author(s)
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Final published version
Abstract
Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a pivotal compound in marine biogeochemical cycles and a key chemical currency in microbial interactions. Marine bacteria transform DMSP via two competing pathways with considerably different biogeochemical implications: demethylation channels sulfur into the microbial food web, whereas cleavage releases sulfur into the atmosphere. Here, we present single-cell measurements of the expression of these two pathways using engineered fluorescent reporter strains of Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3, and find that external DMSP concentration dictates the relative expression of the two pathways. DMSP induces an upregulation of both pathways, but only at high concentrations (>1 μM for demethylation; >35 nM for cleavage), characteristic of microscale hotspots such as the vicinity of phytoplankton cells. Co-incubations between DMSP-producing microalgae and bacteria revealed an increase in cleavage pathway expression close to the microalgae’s surface. These results indicate that bacterial utilization of microscale DMSP hotspots is an important determinant of the fate of sulfur in the ocean. ©2020
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15693-z
