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Plankton Genes and Extracellular Organic Substances in the Ocean
Version 1
: Received: 18 March 2023 / Approved: 20 March 2023 / Online: 20 March 2023 (03:07:57 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Jenkinson, I.R. Plankton Genes and Extracellular Organic Substances in the Ocean. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11, 783. Jenkinson, I.R. Plankton Genes and Extracellular Organic Substances in the Ocean. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11, 783.
Abstract
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean represents about 662 billion tonnes of C, 200 times more than the living biomass. It is produced mainly by microbial primary production. The largest fraction of this DOM is old (>weeks to months) and both chemically and biologically recalcitrant. The remainder is young (seconds to weeks), more labile and surface active. It also changes the rheological properties in the bulk phase of the water and at interfaces including the sea surface microlayer (SML). In order of abundance, this DOM consists of sugars, amino acids, fatty acids and nucleic acids, often incorporated into complex polymers. The DOM molecules are produced by microbial genes, and are further modified by enzymes themselves produced by genes. The properties of ocean water and its interfaces as well as biogeochemical fluxes may thus be modified by ocean microbial genes. These fluxes influence ocean and atmospheric climate, which in return acts on the biota. Therefore the ocean microbial genomes and the fluxes and climates they influence may be subject to Darwinian-type selection. Research programmes need to integrate ocean ecology, rheology, biogeochemistry and genomics, to find the associations among them. Discovery of commercial bioactive molecules may be a bonus.
Keywords
ocean; phytoplankton; bacteria; biogeochemistry; rheology; genomics
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Aging
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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