Journal
SCIENCE ADVANCES
Volume 5, Issue 8, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw8855
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Funding
- Marie Curie Actions-International Outgoing Fellowships [253970]
- U.S. National Science Foundation [OCE1335269]
- Simons Foundation [509727]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Marine Microbiology Initiative award [3779]
- Spanish project HOTMIX [CTM2011-30010-C02-MAR]
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All known phototrophic metabolisms on Earth rely on one of three categories of energy-converting pigments: chlorophyll-a (rarely -d), bacteriochlorophyll-a (rarely -b), and retinal, which is the chromophore in rhodopsins. While the significance of chlorophylls in solar energy capture has been studied for decades, the contribution of retinal-based phototrophy to this process remains largely unexplored. We report the first vertical distributions of the three energy-converting pigments measured along a contrasting nutrient gradient through the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The highest rhodopsin concentrations were observed above the deep chlorophyll-a maxima, and their geographical distribution tended to be inversely related to that of chlorophyll-a. We further show that proton-pumping proteorhodopsins potentially absorb as much light energy as chlorophyll-a-based phototrophy and that this energy is sufficient to sustain bacterial basal metabolism.This suggests that proteorhodopsins are a major energy-transducing mechanism to harvest solar energy in the surface ocean.
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