Examination of gene repertoires and physiological responses to iron and light limitation in Southern Ocean diatoms ...

Diatoms play a fundamental role at the base of the polar marine food web. In the Southern Ocean, low iron concentrations and light levels control diatom abundance and distribution. Diatoms must therefore employ strategies that allow them to cope when iron and/or light availability is growth limiting...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin, Y., Cassar, N., Marchetti, A., Davies, S., Moreno, C.M., Monbureau, E.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Springer Verlag 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17615/194z-m685
https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/articles/d791ss10x
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Summary:Diatoms play a fundamental role at the base of the polar marine food web. In the Southern Ocean, low iron concentrations and light levels control diatom abundance and distribution. Diatoms must therefore employ strategies that allow them to cope when iron and/or light availability is growth limiting. Through a combination of physiological and molecular-based approaches, we have investigated the physiological response to variable iron concentrations and light levels along with the expressed gene repertoires of nine newly isolated diatoms from the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region of the Southern Ocean. The diatoms ranged across five orders of magnitude in biovolume and displayed various degrees of susceptibility to low iron and light availability. Under the performed laboratory culture conditions, the growth rates of most diatoms decreased more due to low light level rather than low iron concentrations. Additionally, most diatoms were not subject to further reductions in growth rates when grown under ...