Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov.
In polar regions, the microphytobenthos has important ecological functions in shallow-water habitats, such as on top of coastal sediments. This community is dominated by benthic diatoms, which contribute significantly to primary production and biogeochemical cycling while also being an important com...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10500929 2023-10-09T21:47:05+02:00 Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. Juchem, Desirée P. Schimani, Katherina Holzinger, Andreas Permann, Charlotte Abarca, Nélida Skibbe, Oliver Zimmermann, Jonas Graeve, Martin Karsten, Ulf 2023-08-31 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10500929/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10500929/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 Copyright © 2023 Juchem, Schimani, Holzinger, Permann, Abarca, Skibbe, Zimmermann, Graeve and Karsten. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Front Microbiol Microbiology Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 2023-09-17T01:03:54Z In polar regions, the microphytobenthos has important ecological functions in shallow-water habitats, such as on top of coastal sediments. This community is dominated by benthic diatoms, which contribute significantly to primary production and biogeochemical cycling while also being an important component of polar food webs. Polar diatoms are able to cope with markedly changing light conditions and prolonged periods of darkness during the polar night in Antarctica. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, five strains of Antarctic benthic diatoms were isolated in the field, and the resulting unialgal cultures were identified as four distinct species, of which one is described as a new species, Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. All four species were thoroughly examined using physiological, cell biological, and biochemical methods over a fully controlled dark period of 3 months. The results showed that the utilization of storage lipids is one of the key mechanisms in Antarctic benthic diatoms to survive the polar night, although different fatty acids were involved in the investigated taxa. In all tested species, the storage lipid content declined significantly, along with an ultrastructurally observable degradation of the chloroplasts. Surprisingly, photosynthetic performance did not change significantly despite chloroplasts decreasing in thylakoid membranes and an increased number of plastoglobules. Thus, a combination of biochemical and cell biological mechanisms allows Antarctic benthic diatoms to survive the polar night. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica polar night PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Frontiers in Microbiology 14 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
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English |
topic |
Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
Microbiology Juchem, Desirée P. Schimani, Katherina Holzinger, Andreas Permann, Charlotte Abarca, Nélida Skibbe, Oliver Zimmermann, Jonas Graeve, Martin Karsten, Ulf Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
topic_facet |
Microbiology |
description |
In polar regions, the microphytobenthos has important ecological functions in shallow-water habitats, such as on top of coastal sediments. This community is dominated by benthic diatoms, which contribute significantly to primary production and biogeochemical cycling while also being an important component of polar food webs. Polar diatoms are able to cope with markedly changing light conditions and prolonged periods of darkness during the polar night in Antarctica. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, five strains of Antarctic benthic diatoms were isolated in the field, and the resulting unialgal cultures were identified as four distinct species, of which one is described as a new species, Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. All four species were thoroughly examined using physiological, cell biological, and biochemical methods over a fully controlled dark period of 3 months. The results showed that the utilization of storage lipids is one of the key mechanisms in Antarctic benthic diatoms to survive the polar night, although different fatty acids were involved in the investigated taxa. In all tested species, the storage lipid content declined significantly, along with an ultrastructurally observable degradation of the chloroplasts. Surprisingly, photosynthetic performance did not change significantly despite chloroplasts decreasing in thylakoid membranes and an increased number of plastoglobules. Thus, a combination of biochemical and cell biological mechanisms allows Antarctic benthic diatoms to survive the polar night. |
format |
Text |
author |
Juchem, Desirée P. Schimani, Katherina Holzinger, Andreas Permann, Charlotte Abarca, Nélida Skibbe, Oliver Zimmermann, Jonas Graeve, Martin Karsten, Ulf |
author_facet |
Juchem, Desirée P. Schimani, Katherina Holzinger, Andreas Permann, Charlotte Abarca, Nélida Skibbe, Oliver Zimmermann, Jonas Graeve, Martin Karsten, Ulf |
author_sort |
Juchem, Desirée P. |
title |
Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
title_short |
Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
title_full |
Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
title_fullStr |
Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four Antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species Planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
title_sort |
lipid degradation and photosynthetic traits after prolonged darkness in four antarctic benthic diatoms, including the newly described species planothidium wetzelii sp. nov. |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10500929/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica polar night |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica polar night |
op_source |
Front Microbiol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10500929/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2023 Juchem, Schimani, Holzinger, Permann, Abarca, Skibbe, Zimmermann, Graeve and Karsten. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1241826 |
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Frontiers in Microbiology |
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14 |
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