Microbiology Commons^™

Physiological Characterization Of Prochlorococcus Under Abiotic Stressors Temperature And Hydrogen Peroxide, Lanying Ma

Doctoral Dissertations

Cyanobacteria of the genus Prochlorococcus are the smallest and most abundant phytoplankters in the ocean. Temperature is a major influence on Prochlorococcus abundance and distribution in the ocean, but the physiological basis for this relationship is not well understood. In other microbes, lipid and fatty acid composition have been shown to be influenced by temperature, and temperature has also been proposed as a relevant factor for setting the elemental allocation in marine phytoplankton. In this study, we found that percentage of fatty acids unsaturation was negatively related with temperature in some Prochlorococcus strains, but this was not universal. Temperature had …