Marine Community Metabolomes Carry Fingerprints of Phytoplankton Community Composition
Katherine R. Heal, Bryndan P. Durham, Angela K. Boysen, Laura T. Carlson, Wei Qin, François Ribalet, Angelicque White, Randelle M. Bundy, E. Virginia Armbrust, Anitra E. Ingalls
Abstract
Microscopic phytoplankton transform 100 million tons of inorganic carbon into thousands of different organic compounds each day. The structure of each chemical is critical to its biological and ecosystem function, yet the diversity of biomolecules produced by marine microbial communities remained mainly unexplored, especially small polar molecules which are often considered the currency of the microbial loop. Here, we explore the abundance and diversity of small biomolecules in planktonic communities across ecological gradients in the North Pacific and within 21 cultured phytoplankton species. Our work demonstrates that phytoplankton diversity is an important determinant of the chemical composition of the highly bioavailable pool of organic carbon in the ocean, and we highlight understudied yet abundant compounds in both the environment and cultured organisms. These findings add to understanding of how the chemical makeup of phytoplankton shapes marine microbial communities where the ability to sense and use biomolecules depends on the chemical structure.