Systems Biology of Iron, Carbon, and NitrogenMetabolism in the Marine Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum
EMSL Project ID
30489
Abstract
Diatoms, which are responsible for up to 40% of the 45 to 50 billion metric tons of organic carbon production each year in the sea (Nelson et al., 1995), are particularly sensitive to Fe stress. Fe limitation of diatoms may lead to significant reductions in export of organic carbon by the overall plankton community. A synthesis of all of the data collected from nine large-scale oceanographic Fe-enrichment experiments conducted in the past decade in Fe-limited waters indicates that diatoms, relative to other phytoplankton taxa, are highly responsive to Fe availability, very effective at scavenging low levels of dissolved Fe, and that Fe nutrition is crucial to the impact of diatoms on the biogeochemistry of macronutrients such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and Silica (Si) (de Baar et al., 2005). The molecular basis of acclimation to Fe, nitrogen, and CO2 stress in pennate diatoms is virtually unknown despite the importance of such adaptations for regulating global patterns of carbon fixation. Our goal is to fill this major gap in knowledge by characterizing patterns of the global proteome in conjunction with gene expression and primary metabolite flux in response to different levels of Fe and other nutrient stresses and over the course of a diel cycle.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2008-08-20
End Date
2011-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Related Publications
Smith S.R., C. Dupont, J.K. McCarthy, J.T. Broddrick, M. Obornik, A. Horak, and Z. Fussy, et al. 2019. "Evolution and regulation of nitrogen flux through compartmentalized metabolic networks in a marine diatom." Nature Communications 10. PNNL-SA-137295. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12407-y