RUI: Regulatory Strategies for the Efficient Use of Iron byOpen Ocean Phytoplankton

铁依赖的代谢过程是营养吸收和能量转导的中心。对于公海浮游植物，铁的可获得性有限可能会控制表层水域初级生产力的模式和大小。这项研究将确定几种生态上重要的浮游植物对铁的利用效率。这项工作最初将专注于聚球藻的一种菌株。铁限制连续培养将被用来获得适应几种铁控制生长速度的细胞。鲁特尔博士将测量总铁含量，以及铁在几种特性良好的蛋白质中的分布情况，这些蛋白质可能控制这些细胞中的能量和氮代谢。对聚球藻的研究将导致与其他几个物种的比较研究，随后将在铁限制的生长条件下进行直接竞争实验。这项工作将提供对铁在浮游植物新陈代谢中的作用的理解，与其他研究光和氮代谢效率的研究人员使用的框架平行。个别浮游植物物种对铁的有效利用受到它们的调控策略的控制。这些策略影响蛋白质含量和生长过程的效率，不仅对这些物种具有竞争意义，而且有助于塑造地表水生态系统的群落结构。

Iron-dependent metabolic processes are central to nutrient uptake and energy transduction. For open ocean phytoplankton, restricted iron availability may control the patterns and magnitude of primary productivity in surface waters. This research will determine the iron use efficiencies for several ecologically important phytoplankton species. The work will originally focus on a strain of Synechococcus. Iron-limited continuous cultures will be used to obtain cells adapted to several iron-controlled growth rate. Dr. Rueter will measure the total iron content and the distribution of the iron into several well characterized proteins that may control energy and nitrogen metabolism in these cells. The work with Synechococcus will lead to comparative studies with several other species, followed by direct competition experiments in iron-limited growth conditions. This work will provide an understanding of the role of iron in phytoplankton metabolism in a parallel framework to that used by other investigators studying the efficiency of light and nitrogen metabolism. The efficient use of iron by individual phytoplankton species is controlled by their strategies of regulation. These strategies effect protein content and efficiency of growth processes and not only have competitive significance for those species but also help shape the community structure of surface water ecosystems.