Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) as a method to elucidate trends in marine planktonic symbioses
The Retaria are an abundant planktonic protist lineage that play a substantial role in biogeochemical cycling, primary production, and food web dynamics in open ocean ecosystems. Their impact is, in large part, due to their capacity to host photosynthetic endosymbionts. Despite the importance of these relationships in the global oceans, our knowledge about the diversity of photosymbionts…
Retaria, an abundant planktonic protist lineage, significantly impacts biogeochemical cycling, primary production, and food web dynamics in open ocean ecosystems. This is largely attributed to their ability to host photosynthetic endosymbionts. However, the diversity of photosymbionts associated with these planktonic Retaria remains largely unknown due to the challenges in collecting and analyzing these cells.
Researchers have developed a new protocol utilizing Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) to overcome this obstacle. FLIM is an accessible method that differentiates between various sources of fluorescence during confocal microscopy. By applying FISH probes to hybridize with commonly reported retarian photosymbiont lineages to environmental plankton samples, researchers were able to confirm the presence or absence of these probes in retarian cells using FLIM.
Analysis of the fluorescence lifetime of 92 photosymbionts revealed a more complex retarian photosymbiosis than previously thought. It was found that Retaria commonly hosts multiple algal lineages per cell and frequently hosts algal lineages outside of the two most common lineages. This study demonstrates that FLIM, an overlooked tool in the study of host-microbe associations, has significant potential to be used across diverse host lineages and environmental samples.
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