Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2024 Mar;22(3):138-154. doi: 10.1038/s41579-023-00975-2. Epub 2023 Oct 13.
The cycling of major nutrients in the ocean is affected by large-scale phytoplankton blooms, which are hot spots of microbial life. Diverse microbial interactions regulate bloom dynamics. At the single-cell level, interactions between microorganisms are mediated by small molecules in the chemical crosstalk that determines the type of interaction, ranging from mutualism to pathogenicity. Algae interact with viruses, bacteria, parasites, grazers and other algae to modulate algal cell fate, and these interactions are dependent on the environmental context. Recent advances in mass spectrometry and single-cell technologies have led to the discovery of a growing number of infochemicals - metabolites that convey information - revealing the ability of algal cells to govern biotic interactions in the ocean. The diversity of infochemicals seems to account for the specificity in cellular response during microbial communication. Given the immense impact of algal blooms on biogeochemical cycles and climate regulation, a major challenge is to elucidate how microscale interactions control the fate of carbon and the recycling of major elements in the ocean. In this Review, we discuss microbial interactions and the role of infochemicals in algal blooms. We further explore factors that can impact microbial interactions and the available tools to decipher them in the natural environment.
海洋中主要营养物质的循环受到大规模浮游植物水华的影响，浮游植物水华是微生物生命的热点区域。多种多样的微生物相互作用调节着水华的动态。在单细胞水平上，微生物之间的相互作用是由决定相互作用类型的化学串扰中的小分子介导的，从共生作用到致病性。藻类与病毒、细菌、寄生虫、食草动物和其他藻类相互作用，调节藻类细胞的命运，这些相互作用取决于环境背景。质谱和单细胞技术的最新进展导致越来越多的信息素（传递信息的代谢物）的发现，揭示了藻类细胞在海洋中控制生物相互作用的能力。信息素的多样性似乎解释了微生物通讯过程中细胞反应的特异性。鉴于藻类水华对生物地球化学循环和气候调节的巨大影响，一个主要的挑战是阐明微尺度相互作用如何控制海洋中碳的命运和主要元素的再循环。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了微生物相互作用和信息素在藻类水华中的作用。我们进一步探讨了可以影响微生物相互作用的因素，以及在自然环境中破译这些因素的可用工具。
