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Ecotypic Variation In Phosphorus Acquisition Mechanisms Within Marine Picocyanobacteria, Lisa Moore, M. Ostrowski, D. J. Scanlan, K. Feren, T. Sweetsir

Biology

ABSTRACT: Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are major prokaryotic primary producers in the oligotrophic oceans that may be affected by the climate-related increases in nitrogen fixation and subsequent phosphorus (P) limitation in some parts of the oceans. Evidence that Prochlorococcus populations in the North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG) have increased over the past decades, possibly due to having a competitive advantage under conditions of P limitation, suggests aspects of their Pphysiology that are important for dictating their in situ success. Here, we compared the physiology of P acquisition and response to P stress (indicated by alkaline phosphatase activity, APA) among isolates of …