Dead or alive, plankton support marine ecosystems
As tiny as they are, marine plankton play pivotal roles in biogeochemical cycles and sustaining aquatic ecosystems, producing around half of the oxygen on Earth and also acting as carbon sinks. When they die, their decomposing cells produce dissolved organic carbon that can be transformed and stored in the ocean for thousands of years, so understanding plankton mortality is essential for…
Marine plankton, despite their small size, play crucial roles in regulating Earth's oxygen and carbon cycles. A team of researchers at Kyoto University have developed a method to accurately measure plankton lysis, the process through which a cell's membrane breaks down and releases genetic material into the environment. By growing cultures of two phytoplankton species, diatoms and raphidophytes, in a seawater-based medium, the researchers were able to extract rRNA and quantify it using digital PCR.
Incorporating a culture of spike-in ribosomes, they measured the degradation rate constant to assess cell lysis accurately. The study, published in MicrobiologyOpen, revealed that viral infection and subsequent cell lysis increased cell-free rRNA production rates significantly, by up to 302-fold compared to noninfected solutions.
This research shows that dissolved organic matter can be supplied during plankton growth, not just during mortality-driven declines. Understanding plankton mortality is essential for comprehending marine ecosystems, as it helps reveal the mechanisms behind these complex environments. The methods for quantifying plankton lysis provide valuable insights into material flows within ecosystems, despite the challenges in distinguishing between different causes of cell lysis.
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