Potential for phosphite and phosphonate utilization by Prochlorococcus |
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Authors: | Roi Feingersch Alon Philosof Tom Mejuch Fabian Glaser Onit Alalouf Yuval Shoham Oded Béjà |
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Affiliation: | 1.Faculty of Biology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;2.Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;3.Bioinformatics Knowledge Unit, Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;4.Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel |
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Abstract: | Phosphonates (Pn) are diverse organic phosphorus (P) compounds containing C–P bonds and comprise up to 25% of the high-molecular weight dissolved organic P pool in the open ocean. Pn bioavailability was suggested to influence markedly bacterial primary production in low-P areas. Using metagenomic data from the Global Ocean Sampling expedition, we show that the main potential microbial contributor in Pn utilization in oceanic surface water is the globally important marine primary producer Prochlorococcus. Moreover, a number of Prochlorococcus strains contain two distinct putative Pn uptake operons coding for ABC-type Pn transporters. On the basis of microcalorimetric measurements, we find that each of the two different putative Pn-binding protein (PhnD) homologs transcribed from these operons possesses different Pn- as well as inorganic phosphite-binding specificities. Our results suggest that Prochlorococcus adapt to low-P environments by increasing the number of Pn transporters with different specificities towards phosphite and different Pns. |
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Keywords: | phosphonate phosphite Prochlorococcus phosphate |
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