A Novel Toolkit to Study Phytoplankton-Bacteria Symbiosis

Project Member(s): Seymour, J., Raina, J.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Marine Microbiology Initiative)
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Marine Microbiology Initiative)

Start year: 2020

Summary: Symbiotic interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria are predicted to influence marine ecosystem productivity and biogeochemistry, with emerging evidence indicating that these relationships are sustained by sophisticated reciprocal chemical exchanges. However, it is unlikely that these chemical interactions occur in the bulk-phase of the water column, rather they are expected to occur within the diffusive boundary layer surrounding individual phytoplankton cells - a region called the phycosphere, which only occupies sub-microlitre volumes. Until now interactions within the phycosphere microenvironment have only been inferred or theorized, due to the unavailability of methods to directly measure microscale chemical exchanges and molecular interactions. To decipher the interactions underpinning a putative symbiotic partnership between the ubiquitous diatom Asterionellopsis glacialis and its bacterial associates Sulfitobacter pseudonitzschiae, Phaeobacter sp. and Alteromonas macleodii (cultivable with draft genomes and transcriptomes), we will develop an innovative new toolbox, comprising a suite of complimentary new technologies

FOR Codes: Microbial ecology, Biological oceanography, Marine Oceanic Processes (excl. climate related), Oceanic processes (excl. in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean)

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.