Can cyanobacteria use organic nutrients to thrive in future oceans?

海洋蓝藻是调节全球气候和支撑整个海洋食物网的核心。虽然它们拥有摄取多种有机营养物质所必需的基因，但我们对有机营养物质是否以及如何影响蓝藻的生理和生态知之甚少。利用我们创新的高通量方法，该项目旨在系统地表征picocyanobacteria的有机营养吸收。我们的分子到生态系统的方法期望改变我们对蓝藻中替代营养获取的理解，以及它如何在快速变化的海洋景观中塑造这些重要光合生物的种群。

Marine cyanobacteria are central to regulating the global climate and underpin entire marine food webs. Though they possess genes necessary to uptake diverse organic nutrients, we know very little about whether and how organic nutrients shape the physiology and ecology of cyanobacteria. Using our innovative high-throughput approach, this project aims to systematically characterise organic nutrient uptake in picocyanobacteria. Our molecules-to-ecosystems approach expects to transform our understanding of alternate nutrient acquisition in cyanobacteria and how it may shape populations of these important photosynthetic organisms in a rapidly-changing ocean landscape.