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Phosphorus supply drives rapid turnover of membrane phospholipids in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonanna.

Martin P., Van Mooy B. A. S., Heithoff A., and Dyhrman S. T.

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A time course of parameters in an experiment where P-replete T. pseudonana cells were harvested and transferred into either P-replete (+P) or P-free (−P) medium. (a) Cell growth in +P and −P treatments; (b) DGCC:PC ratio (note that DGCC was undetectable before 24h); (c) SQDG:PG ratio; (d) combined molar percentage of total IPLs contributed by the phospholipids PC, PG and PE; (e) combined content of the three phospholipids PC, PG and PE per cell; (f) PE:PC ratio. All data are treatment mean±1 s.d. of n=3.


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» Full text of article can be found here.

The ISME Journal (2011) 5, 1057-1060; doi:10.1038/ismej.2010.192; published online 16 December 2010


Abstract
In low-phosphorus (P) marine systems, phytoplankton replace membrane phospholipids with non-phosphorus lipids, but it is not known how rapidly this substitution occurs. Here, when cells of the model diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana were transferred from P-replete medium to P-free medium, the phospholipid content of the cells rapidly declined within 48 h from 45±0.9 to 21±4.5% of the total membrane lipids; the difference was made up by non-phosphorus lipids. Conversely, when P-limited T. pseudonana were resupplied with P, cells reduced the percentage of their total membrane lipids contributed by a non-phosphorus lipid from 43±1.5 to 7.3±0.9% within 24 h, whereas the contribution by phospholipids rose from 2.2±0.1 to 44±3%. This dynamic phospholipid reservoir contained sufficient P to synthesize multiple haploid genomes, suggesting that phospholipid turnover could be an important P source for cells. Field observations of phytoplankton lipid content may thus reflect short-term changes in P supply and cellular physiology, rather than simply long-term adjustment to the environment.

Last updated: December 14, 2011
 


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