Muratore Daniel, Gilbert Naomi E, LeCleir Gary R, Wilhelm Steven W, Weitz Joshua S
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501-8943.
Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0845.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 18;122(11):e2410268122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2410268122. Epub 2025 Mar 14.
The daily cycle of photosynthetic primary production at the base of marine food webs is often limited by the availability of scarce nutrients. Microbial competition for these scarce resources can be alleviated insofar as the intensity of nutrient uptake and assimilation activities are distributed heterogeneously across organisms over periodic input cycles. Recent analysis of community transcriptional dynamics in the nitrogen-limited subtropical North Pacific gyre revealed evidence of temporal partitioning of nitrogen uptake and assimilation between eukaryotic phytoplankton, cyanobacteria, and heterotrophic bacteria over day-night cycles. Here, we present results from a Lagrangian metatranscriptomic time series survey in the Sargasso Sea and demonstrate temporally partitioned phosphorus uptake in this phosphorus-limited environment. In the Sargasso, heterotrophic bacteria, eukaryotic phytoplankton, and cyanobacteria express genes for phosphorus assimilation during the morning, day, and dusk, respectively. These results support the generality of temporal niche partitioning as an emergent mechanism that can structure uptake of limiting nutrients and facilitate coexistence of diverse microbes in open ocean ecosystems.
海洋食物网底层光合初级生产的日循环通常受到稀缺营养物质可利用性的限制。只要在周期性输入周期内，营养物质吸收和同化活动的强度在生物体之间呈非均匀分布，微生物对这些稀缺资源的竞争就能得到缓解。最近对氮限制的亚热带北太平洋环流中群落转录动态的分析表明，在昼夜循环中，真核浮游植物、蓝细菌和异养细菌之间存在氮吸收和同化的时间划分。在此，我们展示了马尾藻海拉格朗日宏转录组时间序列调查的结果，并证明了在这个磷限制环境中存在时间划分的磷吸收。在马尾藻海，异养细菌、真核浮游植物和蓝细菌分别在早晨、白天和黄昏表达磷同化基因。这些结果支持了时间生态位划分作为一种新兴机制的普遍性，该机制可以构建对限制营养物质的吸收，并促进不同微生物在开放海洋生态系统中的共存。
