IMIS

Publications | Institutes | Persons | Datasets | Projects | Maps
[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

The role of zinc in the adaptive evolution of polar phytoplankton
Ye, Naihao; Han, Wentao; Toseland, Andrew; Wang, Yitao; Fan, Xiao; Xu, Dong; van Oosterhout, Cock; Aslam, Shazia N.; Barry, Kerrie; Beszteri, Bank; Brussaard, Corina; Clum, Alicia; Copeland, Alex; Daum, Chris; Duncan, Anthony; Eloe-Fadrosh, Emiley; Fong, Allison; Foster, Brian; Foster, Bryce; Ginzburg, Michael; Huntemann, Marcel; Ivanova, Natalia N.; Kyrpides, Nikos C.; Martin, Kara; Moulton, Vincent; Mukherjee, Supratim; Palaniappan, Krishnaveni; Reddy, T. B. K.; Roux, Simon; Schmidt, Katrin; Strauss, Jan; Timmermans, Klaas; Tringe, Susannah G.; Underwood, Graham J. C.; Valentin, Klaus U.; van de Poll, Willem H.; Varghese, Neha; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Tagliabue, Alessandro; Zhang, Jian; Zhang, Yan; Ma, Jian; Qiu, Huan; Li, Youxun; Zhang, Xiaowen; Mock, Thomas; Sea of Change Consortium (2022). The role of zinc in the adaptive evolution of polar phytoplankton. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6(7): 965-978. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01750-x
In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. Springer Nature. ISSN 2397-334X, more
Related to:
Blaby-Haas, C.E. (2022). Polar algae flaunt their zinc assets. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6(7): 851-852. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01721-2, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keyword
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Brussaard, C.P.D., more
  • Timmermans, K., more

Abstract
    Zinc is an essential trace metal for oceanic primary producers with the highest concentrations in polar oceans. However, its role in the biological functioning and adaptive evolution of polar phytoplankton remains enigmatic. Here, we have applied a combination of evolutionary genomics, quantitative proteomics, co-expression analyses and cellular physiology to suggest that model polar phytoplankton species have a higher demand for zinc because of elevated cellular levels of zinc-binding proteins. We propose that adaptive expansion of regulatory zinc-finger protein families, co-expanded and co-expressed zinc-binding proteins families involved in photosynthesis and growth in these microalgal species and their natural communities were identified to be responsible for the higher zinc demand. The expression of their encoding genes in eukaryotic phytoplankton metatranscriptomes from pole-to-pole was identified to correlate not only with dissolved zinc concentrations in the upper ocean but also with temperature, suggesting that environmental conditions of polar oceans are responsible for an increased demand of zinc. These results suggest that zinc plays an important role in supporting photosynthetic growth in eukaryotic polar phytoplankton and that this has been critical for algal colonization of low-temperature polar oceans.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors