Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 367, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnaa034
Keywords
DOM; mixotrophy; western tropical South Pacific; diazotrophs
Categories
Funding
- French national research agency [ANR-14-CE01-0007-01]
- LEFE-CYBER program (CNRS-INSU)
- GOPS program (IRD)
- CNES [BC T23, ZBC 4500048836]
- People Programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions) of the European Union's FP7/2007-2013 programme, REA [625 185]
- NSF [OCE-1733610]
- National Science Foundation [OCE-1 434 916]
- Vetlesen Foundation
- Danish Council for Independent Research [6108-00013]
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Mixotrophy, the combination of heterotrophic and autotrophic nutrition modes, is emerging as the rule rather than the exception in marine photosynthetic plankton. Trichodesmium, a prominent diazotroph ubiquitous in the (sub)tropical oceans, is generally considered to obtain energy via autotrophy. While the ability of Trichodesmium to use dissolved organic phosphorus when deprived of inorganic phosphorus sources is well known, the extent to which this important cyanobacterium may benefit from other dissolved organic matter (DOM) resources is unknown. Here we provide evidence of carbon-, nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich DOM molecules enhancing N, fixation rates and nifH gene expression in natural Trichodesmium colonies collected at two stations in the western tropical South Pacific. Sampling at a third station located in the oligotrophic South Pacific Gyre revealed no Trichodesmium but showed presence of UCYN-B, although no nifH expression was detected. Our results suggest that Trichodesmium behaves mixotrophically in response to certain environmental conditions, providing them with metabolic plasticity and adding up to the view that mixotrophy is widespread among marine microbes.
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