Ferredoxin and flavodoxin as indicators of iron availability in Antarctic sea ice microalgal communities ...

• Main Author: Pankowski, A
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Phytoplankton; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23246057.v1; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Ferredoxin_and_flavodoxin_as_indicators_of_iron_availability_in_Antarctic_sea_ice_microalgal_communities/23246057/1

The availability of the micronutrient iron is known to exert control on phytoplankton growth and community composition in much of the Southern Ocean. The role of this trace element in regulating primary production in Antarctic pack ice is however, largely unknown. To investigate the availability of iron to microalgae in Antarctic pack ice, immunoassays were developed for the proteins ferredoxin and flavodoxin. In pervious studies these proteins have been shown to be regulated by iron availability in many temperate marine phytoplankton and have the potential to be used as indicators of iron availability in situ. Antibodies generated towards ferredoxin and flavodoxin purified from a temperate diatom were found to have good cross-reactivity with the proteins from a range of sea ice diatoms. The putative iron stress protein flavodoxin was found to be expressed constitutively in several sea ice diatoms from both the Antarctic and Arctic. Along with constitutive flavodoxin expression some sea ice diatoms were ...