Basin-scale biogeography of marine phytoplankton reflects cellular-scale optimization of metabolism and physiology
Name
sciadv.abl4930.pdf
Description
Published version
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2.4 MB
Format
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Checksum (MD5)
34d9142acc8df0067bc3903664ddab2e
Author(s)
Casey, John R
Boiteau, Rene M
Engqvist, Martin KM
Finkel, Zoe V
Li, Gang
Liefer, Justin
Müller, Christian L
Muñoz, Nathalie
Follows, Michael J
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Casey, John R, Boiteau, Rene M, Engqvist, Martin KM, Finkel, Zoe V, Li, Gang et al. 2022. "Basin-scale biogeography of marine phytoplankton reflects cellular-scale optimization of metabolism and physiology." Science Advances, 8 (3).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Extensive microdiversity within Prochlorococcus , the most abundant marine cyanobacterium, occurs at scales from a single droplet of seawater to ocean basins. To interpret the structuring role of variations in genetic potential, as well as metabolic and physiological acclimation, we developed a mechanistic constraint-based modeling framework that incorporates the full suite of genes, proteins, metabolic reactions, pigments, and biochemical compositions of 69 sequenced isolates spanning the Prochlorococcus pangenome. Optimizing each strain to the local, observed physical and chemical environment along an Atlantic Ocean transect, we predicted variations in strain-specific patterns of growth rate, metabolic configuration, and physiological state, defining subtle niche subspaces directly attributable to differences in their encoded metabolic potential. Predicted growth rates covaried with observed ecotype abundances, affirming their significance as a measure of fitness and inferring a nonlinear density dependence of mortality. Our study demonstrates the potential to interpret global-scale ecosystem organization in terms of cellular-scale processes.
Extensive microdiversity within Prochlorococcus , the most abundant marine cyanobacterium, occurs at scales from a single droplet of seawater to ocean basins. To interpret the structuring role of variations in genetic potential, as well as metabolic and physiological acclimation, we developed a mechanistic constraint-based modeling framework that incorporates the full suite of genes, proteins, metabolic reactions, pigments, and biochemical compositions of 69 sequenced isolates spanning the Prochlorococcus pangenome. Optimizing each strain to the local, observed physical and chemical environment along an Atlantic Ocean transect, we predicted variations in strain-specific patterns of growth rate, metabolic configuration, and physiological state, defining subtle niche subspaces directly attributable to differences in their encoded metabolic potential. Predicted growth rates covaried with observed ecotype abundances, affirming their significance as a measure of fitness and inferring a nonlinear density dependence of mortality. Our study demonstrates the potential to interpret global-scale ecosystem organization in terms of cellular-scale processes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIADV.ABL4930
