The eco-genomics of phytoplankton: An outlook on the future

  • Alberto Amato*
  • , Luisa Orsini
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The community structure and functioning of marine ecosystems is strongly dependent on eukaryotic phytoplankton, which dominates the modern oceans and is responsible for most flux of organic matter. Most importantly, higher trophic levels such as fish and marine mammals depend on short food chains driven by bloom-forming phytoplankton. Past genetic work on marine phytoplankton has mainly focused on descriptive studies, inferring the extent of biodiversity at or below the species level. More recently, the development of new genetic tools and the sequence of full genomes of a handful of phytoplankton species allowed a breakthrough in functional genomics and developed insights into key ecological processes, such as toxin metabolism, cell mortality processes, and DMSO metabolism. While these latter results represent an encouraging step forward in our understanding of phytoplankton communities, the link between biodiversity and the functioning of pelagic ecosystems is still missing. To interpret the biological processes driving biodiversity, a mechanistic understanding of single gene effects in natural populations and their feedback at community level is required. This can be achieved with the help of mesocosms (controlled environments), which scale up nicely to natural environments. Marine phytoplanktons have been considered for a long time as genetically homogeneous throughout their distributional range. However, recent evidence has questioned the idea that everything is everywhere, suggesting instead a spatial and temporal compartmentalization of phytoplankton communities, despite elevated gene flow. This calls for a completely new view of the 'once-thought simple' phytoplankton community dynamics. First, the temporal and spatial compartmentalization of phytoplankton communities strongly suggests that marine ecosystems should be considered as a group of communities connected by different levels of dispersal, which translates in differential gene flow between partially-isolated communities. This would suggest that the dispersal-gene flow paradox typical of standing aquatic ecosystems may be applicable to marine ecosystems as well. Secondly, the striking bottom-up effect in marine ecosystems, as demonstrated by the control operated by phytoplankton on zooplankton demography, suggests that changes in phytoplankton genetic diversity can be expected to induce a chain effect to higher trophic levels. This concept, known as 'extended phenotype', predicts that genes have phenotypes that extend beyond the individual to have community and ecosystem consequences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMarine Phytoplankton
PublisherNova Science Publishers Inc
Pages327-343
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)9781614702122
ISBN (Print)9781607410874
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2009

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action
  2. SDG 14 - Life Below Water
    SDG 14 Life Below Water

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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