prokaryotes Archives - Ocean Acidification

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Acidification and hypoxia drive physiological trade-offs in oysters and partial loss of nutrient cycling capacity in oyster holobiont

Published 26 May 2023 Science Leave a Comment
Tags: biological response, BRcommunity, community composition, laboratory, molecular biology, mollusks, mortality, multiple factors, North Pacific, otherprocess, oxygen, physiology, prokaryotes

Introduction:

Reef building oysters provide vast ecological benefits and ecosystem services. A large part of their role in driving ecological processes is mediated by the microbial communities that are associated with the oysters; together forming the oyster holobiont. While changing environmental conditions are known to alter the physiological performance of oysters, it is unclear how multiple stressors may alter the ability of the oyster holobiont to maintain its functional role.

Methods:

Here, we exposed oysters to acidification and hypoxia to examine their physiological responses (molecular defense and immune response), changes in community structure of their associated microbial community, and changes in water nutrient concentrations to evaluate how acidification and hypoxia will alter the oyster holobiont’s ecological role.

Results:

We found clear physiological stress in oysters exposed to acidification, hypoxia, and their combination but low mortality. However, there were different physiological trade-offs in oysters exposed to acidification or hypoxia, and the combination of stressors incited greater physiological costs (i.e., >600% increase in protein damage and drastic decrease in haemocyte counts). The microbial communities differed depending on the environment, with microbial community structure partly readjusted based on the environmental conditions. Microbes also seemed to have lost some capacity in nutrient cycling under hypoxia and multi-stressor conditions (~50% less nitrification) but not acidification.

Discussion:

We show that the microbiota associated to the oyster can be enriched differently under climate change depending on the type of environmental change that the oyster holobiont is exposed to. In addition, it may be the primary impacts to oyster physiology which then drives changes to the associated microbial community. Therefore, we suggest the oyster holobiont may lose some of its nutrient cycling properties under hypoxia and multi-stressor conditions although the oysters can regulate their physiological processes to maintain homeostasis on the short-term.

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Responses of biogenic dimethylated sulfur compounds to environmental changes in the northwestern Pacific continental sea

Published 11 May 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biogeochemistry, biological response, BRcommunity, community composition, laboratory, molecular biology, multiple factors, North Pacific, nutrients, otherprocess, phytoplankton, prokaryotes

Continental seas are facing rapid environmental shifts, but how biogenic dimethylated sulfur compounds, including dimethylsulfide (DMS), dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), will respond to these environmental changes remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the effects of nutrient input, ocean acidification, and dust deposition on the phytoplankton community and organic sulfur cycle in the East China Sea. Nutrient input promoted phytoplankton growth and increased the concentrations of DMS, DMSP, and DMSO. With sufficient nutrients, especially nitrate, the dissolved DMSP degradation was inhibited, and the bacterial DMSP-cleavage pathway (inferred by dddP gene abundance) was enhanced, causing increased DMS production. The sensitivity of phytoplankton biomass and DMS to ocean acidification varied with different initial nutrient levels, demonstrating insensitivity under eutrophic conditions and negative responses under nutrient-limited conditions. The ocean acidification promoted the dissolved DMSP degradation and bacterial DMSP-demethylation pathway (inferred by dmdA gene abundance) and weakened the DMS production, causing the decreases of DMS and DMSP. The nutrient from dust deposition (2 mg L⁻¹) was identified as the key factor in enhancing phytoplankton biomass and the organic sulfur compounds concentrations, but trace metals input from dust deposition had no significant effect. This study has identified environmental drivers and suppressors of phytoplankton and biogenic dimethylated sulfur compounds in a changing marine environment, which will enable the effective modeling of future climate change.

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Integrated FT-ICR MS and metabolome reveals diatom-derived organic matter by bacterial transformation under warming and acidification

Published 9 May 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biogeochemistry, biological response, laboratory, molecular biology, multiple factors, North Pacific, physiology, prokaryotes, temperature

Highlights

The key roles of algae-associated bacteria in the transformation of algae-derived OM.
Bacteria have different preferences for the conversion of compounds in algae-derived OM.
Warming and acidification affect microbial transformation of organic matter.

Summary

Bacterial transformation and processing of diatom-derived organic matter (OM) is extremely important for the cycling of production and energy in marine ecosystems; this process contributes to the production of microbial food webs. In this study, a cultivable bacterium (Roseobacter sp. SD-R1) from the marine diatom Skeletonema dohrnii were isolated and identified. A combined Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS)/untargeted metabolomics approach was used to synthesize the results of bacterial transformation with dissolved OM (DOM) and lysate OM (LOM) under warming and acidification through laboratory experiments. Roseobacter sp. SD-R1 had different preferences for the conversion of molecules in S. dohrnii-derived DOM and LOM treatments. The effects of warming and acidification contribute to the increased number and complexity of molecules of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur after the bacterial transformation of OM. The chemical complexity generated by bacterial metabolism provides new insights into the mechanisms that shape OM complexity.

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Acidification alters sediment nitrogen source-sink dynamics in eelgrass (Zostera marina (L.)) beds

Published 9 May 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biogeochemistry, biological response, BRcommunity, laboratory, morphology, nitrogen fixation, North Atlantic, phanerogams, physiology, prokaryotes, sediment

Dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂) in seawater lowers water pH and can disrupt microbial nutrient cycles. It is unclear how acidification impacts hot spots of nutrient cycling in marine ecosystems such as eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds. We measured nutrient and gas fluxes in sediment cores from Z. marina beds and unvegetated-sediment habitats in Shinnecock Bay, New York, USA in a continuous-flow system with acidified and ambient pH treatments. Under ambient conditions, uptake of N₂ by nitrogen (N) fixation was greater than production of N₂ by denitrification. Denitrification, however, was dominant under acidified conditions. We then enriched flowing seawater with ¹⁵NO₃⁻ to test the impact of a nutrient pulse with ambient pH or acidified conditions in the eelgrass and unvegetated cores. Sediment N₂ efflux was higher in eelgrass than unvegetated sediments under acidified pH with N-enriched treatments. Results suggest that eelgrass beds may serve as sinks rather than sources of N under the combined stressors of acidification and N-loading. Documenting changes to N pathways under acidification can inform efforts to manage marine ecosystems and conserve benthic habitats.

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Addressing the joint impact of temperature and pH on Vibrio harveyi adaptation in the time of climate change

Published 27 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biological response, growth, laboratory, morphology, mortality, otherprocess, prokaryotes

Global warming and acidification of the global ocean are two important manifestations of the ongoing climate change. To characterize their joint impact on Vibrio adaptation and fitness, we analyzed the temperature-dependent adaptation of Vibrio harveyi at different pHs (7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.3 and 8.5) that mimic the pH of the world ocean in the past, present and future. Comparison of V. harveyi growth at 20, 25 and 30 °C show that higher temperature per se facilitates the logarithmic growth of V. harveyi in nutrient-rich environments in a pH-dependent manner. Further survival tests carried out in artificial seawater for 35 days revealed that cell culturability declined significantly upon incubation at 25 °C and 30 °C but not at 20 °C. Moreover, although acidification displayed a negative impact on cell culturability at 25 °C, it appeared to play a minor role at 30 °C, suggesting that elevated temperature, rather than pH, was the key player in the observed reduction of cell culturability. In addition, analyses of the stressed cell morphology and size distribution by epifluorescent microscopy indicates that V. harveyi likely exploits different adaptation strategies (e.g., acquisition of coccoid-like morphology) whose roles might differ depending on the temperature–pH combination.

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Ocean acidification has a strong effect on communities living on plastic in mesocosms

Published 26 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biological response, BRcommunity, chemistry, community composition, field, gastrotricha, mesocosms, molecular biology, nitrogen fixation, North Pacific, otherprocess, prokaryotes, protists

We conducted a mesocosm experiment to examine how ocean acidification (OA) affects communities of prokaryotes and eukaryotes growing on single-use drinking bottles in subtropical eutrophic waters of the East China Sea. Based on 16S rDNA gene sequencing, simulated high CO₂ significantly altered the prokaryotic community, with the relative abundance of the phylum Planctomycetota increasing by 49%. Under high CO₂, prokaryotes in the plastisphere had enhanced nitrogen dissimilation and ureolysis, raising the possibility that OA may modify nutrient cycling in subtropical eutrophic waters. The relative abundance of pathogenic and animal parasite bacteria also increased under simulated high CO₂. Our results show that elevated CO₂ levels significantly affected several animal taxa based on 18S rDNA gene sequencing. For example, Mayorella amoebae were highly resistant, whereas Labyrinthula were sensitive to OA. Thus, OA may alter plastisphere food chains in subtropical eutrophic waters.

Scientific Significance Statement

Plastic waste in the ocean is an urgent environmental concern and has given rise to a novel habitat, known as the “plastisphere.” Under ocean acidification (OA), changes in plastisphere community composition may alter plastic degradation, deposition, and passage through food webs, but these have not been studied yet. This is the first study about the effects of simulated high CO₂ on the plastisphere using a mesocosm. We discovered that after 1 month the beta diversity of prokaryotic communities living on single-use plastic drinking bottles was significantly different under different carbon dioxide concentrations, with more pathogens at high CO₂. Based on function prediction analysis, the relative abundance of bacterial taxa involved in nitrogen and nitrate respiration and ureolysis was significantly higher under simulated high CO₂. We conclude that OA has significant effects on the plastisphere and its predicted functions.

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Ocean acidification alters the benthic biofilm communities in intertidal soft sediments

Published 17 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biogeochemistry, biological response, BRcommunity, community composition, growth, laboratory, molecular biology, North Pacific, otherprocess, photosynthesis, physiology, prokaryotes, sediment

Microphytobenthos (MPB) and bacterial biofilms play crucial roles in primary and secondary production, nutrient cycling and invertebrate settlement in coastal ecosystems, yet little is known of the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on these communities in intertidal soft sediments. To fill in this gap, a 28-day CO₂ enhancement experiment was conducted for the benthic biofilms in soft intertidal sediments (muds and sands) from Qingdao, China. This experiment included three CO₂ treatments: 400 ppm CO₂ (control), 700 ppm CO₂ and 1000 ppm CO₂ (IPCC predicted value in 2100), which were established in a three-level CO₂ incubator that can adjust the CO₂ concentration in the overlying air. The effects of OA on benthic biofilms were assessed in the following three aspects: MPB biomass, biofilm community structure and microbial biogeochemical cycling (e.g., C-cycle, N-cycle and S-cycle). This study found that the 700 ppm CO₂ treatment did not significantly affect the benthic biofilms in intertidal soft sediments, but the 1000 ppm CO₂ treatment significantly altered the biofilm community composition and potentially their role in microbial biogeochemical cycling in sediments (especially in sandy sediments). For the bacterial community in biofilms, the 1000 ppm CO₂ enhancement increased the relative abundance of Alteromonadales and Bacillales but decreased the relative abundance of Rhodobacterales and Flavobacteriales. For microbial biogeochemical cycling, the 1000 ppm CO₂ treatment enhanced the potential of chemoheterotrophic activity, nitrate reduction and sulfur respiration in sediments, likely resulting in a more stressful environment (hypoxic and enriched H₂S) for most benthic organisms. Even though incubations in this study were only 28 days long and thus couldn’t fully accommodate the range of longer-term adaptions, it still suggests that benthic biofilms in intertidal sandy sediments are likely to change significantly near the end of the century if anthropogenic CO₂ emissions unmitigated, with profound implications on local ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling.

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Two treatment methods on Ulva prolifera bloom result in distinctively different ecological effects in coastal environment

Published 14 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, algae, biological response, BRcommunity, community composition, laboratory, molecular biology, morphology, North Atlantic, otherprocess, prokaryotes

Green tides Ulva prolifera have broken out in the Yellow Sea for more than 10 years, becoming a periodic ecological disaster. The largest-ever green tide that occurred in 2021 promoted innovation in treatment methods. Different from the traditional harvest-disposal method, a microbial complex formulation was firstly sprayed on the harvest U. prolifera that promotes rapid degradation, and then fermented and disposed into the sea. At present, little was known about the ecological effects of those different treatment methods. In order to examine this hypothesis, we run an in-lab incubation of 60 days to simulate the two methods to degrade U. prolifera, with focuses on the degradation ensued impacts on water quality. The degradation process of fresh U. prolifera over two months was dominated by the continuous and slow release of DOM, and the concentration of DOM in the water column was hardly observed to decrease within two months. The pre-discomposed-disposal method also significantly altered microbial community structure. The pre-decomposing treatment with microbial complex formulations destroyed U. prolifera cell tissues and changed its physical state in seawater from floating to fast depositing, and increased the degradation rate by about 14 times. The rapid decomposition of the released bioactive organic matter consumed a substantial amount of dissolved oxygen in local seawater, which has the potential risk of causing local hypoxia and acidification in a short-term. The pre-decomposition treatment of U. prolifera could be a practical and efficient countermeasures to U. prolifera blooming. After the complete degradation of the pre-decomposed U. prolifera, the resulting dissolved organic matter could increase TA to resist acidification. Overall, compared with traditional harvest-packing-disposal method, the pre-decomposing-disposal treatment is an efficient and environmental-friendly disposal method to deal with the U. prolifera “green tide”, but it should be used cautiously.

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Sponge organic matter recycling: reduced detritus production under extreme environmental conditions

Published 14 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biogeochemistry, biological response, BRcommunity, chemistry, field, multiple factors, otherprocess, oxygen, photosynthesis, physiology, phytoplankton, porifera, primary production, prokaryotes, respiration, South Pacific, temperature

Highlights

Sponge metabolism was measured at the natural laboratory of Bouraké where sponges are naturally exposed to extreme conditions associated with tidal phase.
The photosymbiotic HMA sponge Rhabdastrella globostellata was able to cope with extreme acidification and deoxygenation seawater.
Photosynthetic activity of sponge symbionts was negatively affected during extreme environmental conditions.
The sponge loop pathway was disrupted during low tide, which correlated with extreme acidification, deoxygenation and warming seawater.

Abstract

Sponges are a key component of coral reef ecosystems and play an important role in carbon and nutrient cycles. Many sponges are known to consume dissolved organic carbon and transform this into detritus, which moves through detrital food chains and eventually to higher trophic levels via what is known as the sponge loop. Despite the importance of this loop, little is known about how these cycles will be impacted by future environmental conditions. During two years (2018 and 2020), we measured the organic carbon, nutrient recycling, and photosynthetic activity of the massive HMA, photosymbiotic sponge Rhabdastrella globostellata at the natural laboratory of Bouraké in New Caledonia, where the physical and chemical composition of seawater regularly change according to the tide. We found that while sponges experienced acidification and low dissolved oxygen at low tide in both sampling years, a change in organic carbon recycling whereby sponges stopped producing detritus (i.e., the sponge loop) was only found when sponges also experienced higher temperature in 2020. Our findings provide new insights into how important trophic pathways may be affected by changing ocean conditions.

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Effect of ocean acidification on the growth, response and hydrocarbon degradation of coccolithophore-bacterial communities exposed to crude oil

Published 12 April 2023 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biological response, BRcommunity, community composition, laboratory, MFcommunity, molecular biology, mortality, multiple factors, otherprocess, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, prokaryotes, toxicants

Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, which can be found living with eukaryotic phytoplankton, play a pivotal role in the fate of oil spillage to the marine environment. Considering the susceptibility of calcium carbonate-bearing phytoplankton under future ocean acidification conditions and their oil-degrading communities to oil exposure under such conditions, we investigated the response of non-axenic E. huxleyi to crude oil under ambient versus elevated CO₂ concentrations. Under elevated CO₂ conditions, exposure to crude oil resulted in the immediate decline of E. huxleyi, with concomitant shifts in the relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria. Survival of E. huxleyi under ambient conditions following oil enrichment was likely facilitated by enrichment of oil-degraders Methylobacterium and Sphingomonas, while the increase in relative abundance of Marinobacter and unclassified Gammaproteobacteria may have increased competitive pressure with E. huxleyi for micronutrient acquisition. Biodegradation of the oil was not affected by elevated CO₂ despite a shift in relative abundance of known and putative hydrocarbon degraders. While ocean acidification does not appear to affect microbial degradation of crude oil, elevated mortality responses of E. huxleyi and shifts in the bacterial community illustrates the complexity of microalgal-bacterial interactions and highlights the need to factor these into future ecosystem recovery projections.

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Acclimatization in a changing environment: linking larval and juvenile performance in the quahog Mercenaria mercenaria

Published 30 March 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, community composition, field, growth, laboratory, molecular biology, mollusks, morphology, mortality, multiple factors, otherprocess, oxygen, physiology, prokaryotes, reproduction, temperature

Marine invertebrates in coastal communities are currently experiencing unprecedented, rapid environmental change. These symptoms of climate change and ocean acidification are projected to worsen faster than can be accommodated by evolutionary processes like adaptation via natural selection, necessitating investigations of alternative mechanisms that facilitate adaptive responses to environmental change. This dissertation posits that in the absence of adaptation, early development (larval) exposure to stressors can increase population tolerance by leveraging existing variation in the energy metabolism and host-microbial interactions. Focusing specifically on resiliency to acidification (low pH), hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen), and elevated temperature stress in the clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, this dissertation uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments in conjunction with next-generation sequencing and physiological assays to investigate the relationship between host health, microbial community structure, and environmental change.

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Effects of acidification on nitrification and associated nitrous oxide emission in estuarine and coastal waters

Published 22 March 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biogeochemistry, biological response, chemistry, field, laboratory, molecular biology, North Pacific, physiology, prokaryotes

In the context of an increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) level, acidification of estuarine and coastal waters is greatly exacerbated by land-derived nutrient inputs, coastal upwelling, and complex biogeochemical processes. A deeper understanding of how nitrifiers respond to intensifying acidification is thus crucial to predict the response of estuarine and coastal ecosystems and their contribution to global climate change. Here, we show that acidification can significantly decrease nitrification rate but stimulate generation of byproduct nitrous oxide (N₂O) in estuarine and coastal waters. By varying CO₂ concentration and pH independently, an expected beneficial effect of elevated CO₂ on activity of nitrifiers (“CO₂-fertilization” effect) is excluded under acidification. Metatranscriptome data further demonstrate that nitrifiers could significantly up-regulate gene expressions associated with intracellular pH homeostasis to cope with acidification stress. This study highlights the molecular underpinnings of acidification effects on nitrification and associated greenhouse gas N₂O emission, and helps predict the response and evolution of estuarine and coastal ecosystems under climate change and human activities.

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Deciphering pH-dependent microbial taxa and functional gene co-occurrence in the coral Galaxea fascicularis

Published 27 February 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, community composition, corals, laboratory, molecular biology, North Pacific, otherprocess, prokaryotes

How the coral microbiome responds to oceanic pH changes due to anthropogenic climate change, including ocean acidification and deliberate artificial alkalization, remains an open question. Here, we applied a 16S profile and GeoChip approach to microbial taxonomic and gene functional landscapes in the coral Galaxea fascicularis under three pH levels (7.85, 8.15, and 8.45) and tested the influence of pH changes on the cell growth of several coral-associated strains and bacterial populations. Statistical analysis of GeoChip-based data suggested that both ocean acidification and alkalization destabilized functional cores related to aromatic degradation, carbon degradation, carbon fixation, stress response, and antibiotic biosynthesis in the microbiome, which are related to holobiont carbon cycling and health. The taxonomic analysis revealed that bacterial species richness was not significantly different among the three pH treatments, but the community compositions were significantly distinct. Acute seawater alkalization leads to an increase in pathogens as well as a stronger taxonomic shift than acidification, which is worth considering when using artificial ocean alkalization to protect coral ecosystems from ocean acidification. In addition, our co-occurrence network analysis reflected microbial community and functional shifts in response to pH change cues, which will further help to understand the functional ecological role of the microbiome in coral resilience.

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Responses of free-living planktonic bacterial communities to experimental acidification and warming

Published 20 February 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, community composition, mesocosms, molecular biology, multiple factors, otherprocess, prokaryotes, temperature

Climate change driven by human activities encompasses the increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration and sea-surface temperature. Little is known regarding the synergistic effects of these phenomena on bacterial communities in oligotrophic marine ecosystems that are expected to be particularly vulnerable. Here, we studied bacterial community composition changes based on 16S rRNA sequencing at two fractions (0.1–0.2 and >0.2 μm) during a 10- day fully factorial mesocosm experiment in the eastern Mediterranean where the pH decreased by ~0.3 units and temperature increased by ~3 °C to project possible future changes in surface waters. The bacterial community experienced significant taxonomic differences driven by the combined effect of time and treatment; a community shift one day after the manipulations was noticed, followed by a similar state between all mesocosms at the third day, and mild shifts later on, which were remarkable mainly under sole acidification. The abundance of Synechococcus increased in response to warming, while the SAR11 clade immediately benefited from the combined acidification and warming. The effect of the acidification itself had a more persistent impact on community composition. This study highlights the importance of studying climate change consequences on ecosystem functioning both separately and simultaneously, considering the ambient environmental parameters.

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Impact of ultraviolet radiation nearly overrides the effects of elevated pCO2 on a prominent nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium

Published 17 January 2023 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, laboratory, light, morphology, multiple factors, photosynthesis, physiology, prokaryotes

Although the marine N₂-fixers Trichodesmium spp. are affected by increasing pCO₂ and by ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in their habitats, little is known on their potential responses to future ocean acidification in the presence of UVR. We grew Trichodesmium at two pCO₂ levels (410 and 1000 μatm) under natural sunlight, documented the filament length, growth, and chlorophyll content after its acclimation to the pCO₂ treatments, and measured its carbon and N₂ fixation rates under different solar radiation treatments with or without UVR. We showed that the elevated pCO₂ did not significantly alter the diazotroph’s growth, filament length, or pigment content, and its photosynthetic rate was only affected by solar radiation treatments rather than the pCO₂ levels. The presence of UV-A and UV-B inhibited photosynthesis by 10–22% and 17–21%, respectively. Inhibition of N₂ fixation by UV-B was proportional to its intensity, whereas UV-A stimulated N₂ fixation at low, but inhibited it at high, intensities. Elevated pCO₂ only stimulated N₂ fixation under moderate levels of solar radiation. The simulated depth profile of N₂ fixation in the water column showed that UV-induced inhibition dominated the combined effects of elevated pCO₂ and UVR at 0–30 m depth and the combination of these factors enhanced N₂ fixation at 30–60 m depth, but this effect diminished in deeper water. Our results suggest that Trichodesmium could be influenced more by UVR than by pCO₂ and their combined action result in negative effects on N₂ fixation under high solar radiation, but positive effects under low to moderate solar radiation.

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Wild oyster population resistance to ocean acidification adversely affected by bacterial infection

Published 22 December 2022 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, laboratory, molecular biology, mollusks, multiple factors, North Pacific, pathogens, physiology, prokaryotes

The carbon dioxide induced ocean acidification (OA) process is well known to have profound effects on physiology, survival and immune responses in marine organisms, and particularly calcifiers including edible oysters. At the same time, some wild populations could develop a complex and sophisticated immune system to cope with multiple biotic and abiotic stresses, such as bacterial infections and OA, over the long period of coevolution with the environment. However, it is unclear how immunological responses and the underlying mechanisms are altered under the combined effect of OA and bacterial infection, especially in the ecologically and economically important edible oysters. Here, we collected the wild population of oyster species Crassostrea hongkongensis (the Hong Kong oyster) from their native estuarine area and carried out a bacterial challenge with the worldwide pervasive pathogen of human foodborne disease, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, to investigate the host immune responses and molecular mechanisms under the high-CO₂ and low pH-driven OA conditions. The wild population had a high immune resistance to OA, but the resistance is compromised under the combined effect of OA and bacterial infection both in vivo or in vitro. We classified all transcriptomic genes based on expression profiles and functional pathways and identified the specifically switched on and off genes and pathways under combined effect. These genes and pathways were mainly involved in multiple immunological processes including pathogen recognition, immune signal transduction and effectors. This work would help understand how the immunological function and mechanism response to bacterial infection in wild populations and predict the dynamic distribution of human health-related pathogens to reduce the risk of foodborne disease under the future climate change scenario.

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Assessing the influence of ocean alkalinity enhancement on a coastal phytoplankton community (update)

Published 21 December 2022 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biogeochemistry, biological response, chemistry, community composition, communitymodeling, field, laboratory, mesocosms, modeling, otherprocess, phytoplankton, prokaryotes, South Pacific

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a proposed method to counteract climate change by increasing the alkalinity of the surface ocean and thus the chemical storage capacity of seawater for atmospheric CO₂. The impact of OAE on marine ecosystems, including phytoplankton communities which make up the base of the marine food web, is largely unknown. To investigate the influence of OAE on phytoplankton communities, we enclosed a natural plankton community from coastal Tasmania for 22 d in nine microcosms during a spring bloom. Microcosms were split into three groups, (1) the unperturbed control, (2) the unequilibrated treatment where alkalinity was increased (+495 ± 5.2 µmol kg⁻¹) but seawater CO₂ was not in equilibrium with atmospheric CO₂, and (3) the equilibrated treatment where alkalinity was increased (+500 ± 3.2 µmol kg⁻¹) and seawater CO₂ was in equilibrium with atmospheric CO₂. Both treatments have the capacity to increase the inorganic carbon sink of seawater by 21 %. We found that simulated OAE had significant but generally moderate effects on various groups in the phytoplankton community and on heterotrophic bacteria. More pronounced effects were observed for the diatom community where silicic acid drawdown and biogenic silica build-up were reduced at increased alkalinity. Observed changes in phytoplankton communities affected the temporal trends of key biogeochemical parameters such as the organic matter carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. Interestingly, the unequilibrated treatment did not have a noticeably larger impact on the phytoplankton (and heterotrophic bacteria) community than the equilibrated treatment, even though the changes in carbonate chemistry conditions were much more severe. This was particularly evident from the occurrence and peak of the phytoplankton spring bloom during the experiment, which was not noticeably different from the control. Altogether, the inadvertent effects of increased alkalinity on the coastal phytoplankton communities appear to be rather limited relative to the enormous climatic benefit of increasing the inorganic carbon sink of seawater by 21 %. We note, however, that more detailed and widespread investigations of plankton community responses to OAE are required to confirm or dismiss this first impression.

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Community context and pCO₂ impact the transcriptome of the “helper” bacterium Alteromonas in co-culture with picocyanobacteria

Published 22 November 2022 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, BRcommunity, growth, laboratory, molecular biology, physiology, prokaryotes

Many microbial photoautotrophs depend on heterotrophic bacteria for accomplishing essential functions. Environmental changes, however, could alter or eliminate such interactions. We investigated the effects of changing pCO₂ on gene transcription in co-cultures of 3 strains of picocyanobacteria (Synechococcus strains CC9311 and WH8102 and Prochlorococcus strain MIT9312) paired with the ‘helper’ bacterium Alteromonas macleodii EZ55. Co-culture with cyanobacteria resulted in a much higher number of up- and down-regulated genes in EZ55 than pCO₂ by itself. Pathway analysis revealed significantly different transcription of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, stress response, and chemotaxis, with different patterns of up- or down-regulation in co-culture with different cyanobacterial strains. Gene transcription patterns of organic and inorganic nutrient transporter and catabolism genes in EZ55 suggested resources available in the culture media were altered under elevated (800 ppm) pCO₂ conditions. Altogether, changing transcription patterns were consistent with the possibility that the composition of cyanobacterial excretions changed under the two pCO₂ regimes, causing extensive ecophysiological changes in both members of the co-cultures. Additionally, significant downregulation of oxidative stress genes in MIT9312/EZ55 cocultures at 800 ppm pCO₂ were consistent with a link between the predicted reduced availability of photorespiratory byproducts (i.e., glycolate/2PG) under this condition and observed reductions in internal oxidative stress loads for EZ55, providing a possible explanation for the previously observed lack of “help” provided by EZ55 to MIT9312 under elevated pCO₂. If similar broad alterations in microbial ecophysiology occur in the ocean as atmospheric pCO₂ increases, they could lead to substantially altered ecosystem functioning and community composition.

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Phosphate limitation intensifies negative effects of ocean acidification on globally important nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium

Published 10 November 2022 Science Closed
Tags: abundance, biological response, field, individualmodeling, laboratory, modeling, molecular biology, multiple factors, North Pacific, nutrients, otherprocess, photosynthesis, physiology, prokaryotes

Growth of the prominent nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium is often limited by phosphorus availability in the ocean. How nitrogen fixation by phosphorus-limited Trichodesmium may respond to ocean acidification remains poorly understood. Here, we use phosphate-limited chemostat experiments to show that acidification enhanced phosphorus demands and decreased phosphorus-specific nitrogen fixation rates in Trichodesmium. The increased phosphorus requirements were attributed primarily to elevated cellular polyphosphate contents, likely for maintaining cytosolic pH homeostasis in response to acidification. Alongside the accumulation of polyphosphate, decreased NADP(H):NAD(H) ratios and impaired chlorophyll synthesis and energy production were observed under acidified conditions. Consequently, the negative effects of acidification were amplified compared to those demonstrated previously under phosphorus sufficiency. Estimating the potential implications of this finding, using outputs from the Community Earth System Model, predicts that acidification and dissolved inorganic and organic phosphorus stress could synergistically cause an appreciable decrease in global Trichodesmium nitrogen fixation by 2100.

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Variable pH and subsequent change in pCO₂ modulates the biofilm formation, synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances, and survivability of a marine bacterium Bacillus stercoris GST-03

Published 14 September 2022 Science Closed
Tags: biological response, Indian, laboratory, physiology, prokaryotes

Biofilm-forming bacteria adhere to the substrates and engage in the nutrient cycling process. However, environmental conditions may interrupt the biofilm formation ability, which ultimately may affect various biogeochemical cycles. The present study reports the effect of varying pH and subsequent change in pCO₂ on the survivability, biofilm formation, and synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of a biofilm-forming marine bacterium Bacillus stercoris GST-03 isolated from the Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem, Odisha, India. Understanding the pH-dependent alteration in EPS constituents, and associated functional groups of a marine bacterium will provide better insight into the adaptability of the bacteria in future ocean acidification scenarios. The strain was found to tolerate and form biofilm up to pH 4, with the maximum biofilm formation at pH 6. EPS yield and the synthesis of the key components of the EPS, including carbohydrate, protein, and lipid, were found maximum at pH 6. Changes in biofilm formation patterns and various topological parameters at varying pH/pCO₂ conditions were observed. A cellular chaining pattern was observed at pH 4, and maximum biofilm formation was obtained at pH 6 with biomass of 5.28582 ± 0.5372 μm³/μm² and thickness of 9.982 ± 1.5288 μm. Structural characterization of EPS showed changes in various functional groups of constituent macromolecules with varying pH. The amorphous nature of the EPS and the changes in linkages and associated functional groups (-R₂CHOR, –CH₃, and –CH₂) with pH variation was confirmed. EPS showed a two-step degradation with a maximum weight loss of 59.147% and thermal stability up to 480 °C at pH 6. The present work efficiently demonstrates the role of EPS in providing structural and functional stability to the biofilm in varying pH conditions. The findings will provide a better understanding of the adaptability of marine bacteria in the future effect of ocean acidification.

Continue reading ‘Variable pH and subsequent change in pCO₂ modulates the biofilm formation, synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances, and survivability of a marine bacterium Bacillus stercoris GST-03′

Posts Tagged 'prokaryotes'

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