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Photosynthetic architecture differs in coastal and oceanic diatoms

Nature volume 431, pages 689–692 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Diatoms are a key taxon of eukaryotic phytoplankton and a major contributor to global carbon fixation1. They are ubiquitous in the marine ecosystem despite marked gradients in environmental properties, such as dissolved iron concentrations, between coastal and oceanic waters. Previous studies have shown that offshore species of diatoms and other eukaryotic algae have evolved lower iron requirements to subsist in iron-poor oceanic waters, but the biochemical mechanisms responsible for their decreased iron demand are unknown2,3. Here we show, using laboratory-cultured model species, a fundamental difference between a coastal and an oceanic diatom in their photosynthetic architecture. Specifically, the oceanic diatom had up to fivefold lower photosystem I and up to sevenfold lower cytochrome b6f complex concentrations than a coastal diatom. These changes to the photosynthetic apparatus markedly decrease the cellular iron requirements of the oceanic diatom but not its photosynthetic rates. However, oceanic diatoms might have also sacrificed their ability to acclimate to rapid fluctuations in light intensity—a characteristic of dynamic and turbid coastal waters. We suggest that diatoms, and probably other eukaryotic algal taxa, exploited this difference in the underwater light climate between oceanic and coastal waters, enabling them to decrease their iron requirements without compromising photosynthetic capacity. This adaptation probably facilitated the colonization of the open ocean by diatoms, and contributes to their persistence in this iron-impoverished environment.

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Figure 1: Steady-state growth rates of the oceanic diatom T. oceanica and the coastal diatom T. weissflogii acclimated to a range of irradiances and iron concentrations.
Figure 2: Photosystem and electron carrier concentrations of T. oceanica and T. weissflogii.
Figure 3: Intracellular and photosynthetic iron concentrations of T. oceanica and T. weissflogii.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. M. McKay for performing the ferredoxin and flavodoxin immunoassays, and J. Eaton-Rye, K. Hunter, M. Maldonado, S. Sander, P. Tortell and P. Boyd for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Marsden Fund of New Zealand.

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Author notes

  1. Robert F. Strzepek

    Present address: NIWA Centre for Chemical and Physical Oceanography, Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

  2. Paul J. Harrison

    Present address: Atmospheric, Marine & Coastal Environment (AMCE) Program, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Robert F. Strzepek

  2. Department of Botany and Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Paul J. Harrison

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Correspondence to Robert F. Strzepek.

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

Photosynthetic and cellular characteristics of iron-replete cultures of the oceanic diatom, Thalassiosira oceanica, and the coastal diatom, T. weissflogii. (DOC 46 kb)

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Strzepek, R., Harrison, P. Photosynthetic architecture differs in coastal and oceanic diatoms. Nature 431, 689–692 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02954

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