DIVERSITY OF MARINE PHOTOTROPHS

Timeline of major discoveries/events

Traditional understanding of primary First report of APB (Anoxygenic Report of Acaryochlorismarina (Chlor
producers Late 1970sphotosynthetic bacteria) (BChls) 1980 ophyll d) 2000
Mid 1970s 1979 1996

Discovery of cyanobacteria Discovery of Prochlorococcus (DVChl Discovery of AAPB & PR-containing

Synechococcus a) bacteria
DIVERSITY OF MARINE PHOTOTROPHS
Timeline of major discoveries/events

Discovery of phytoplankton which did not belong to any Discovery of new phylum known as Rappemonads & UCYN-
known phylum A

2010 Current times

2007 2011

Discovery of chlorophyll f & picophytoplankton New understanding of primary producers

2
Mid 1970s
Traditional Understanding of primary producers

•
Due to limitations in plankton net technology, it has been understood that diatoms and
flagellates are the two main primary producers in the ocean.
•
Recent research that utilizes DNA detection and flow cytometry revealed that the pred
omainant phytoplankton is actually much smaller than diatoms and flagellates. For exa
mple, haptophytes including coccolithophores.

Diatoms Flagellate Haptophytes

3
Late 1970s
Discovery of Synechococcus

•
Improvement in development of fluorescence microscopy & electron micr
oscopic observations lead to the conclusion that an unicellular cyanobacter
ia known as Synechococcus are predominantly distributed in the ocean esp
ecially in tropical & subtropical regions.

Synechococcus under fluorescence microscope

1979
First report of APB

APB (Anaerobic anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria)is distributed in an ana

•

erobic environment & can carry out photosynthesis without involving oxyge
n in the process.
The diagram below illustrates the process of anoxygenic photosynthesis.
•
1980
Discovery of Prochorococcus

•
Development of HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography)
technique brought new insight for marine picocyanobacteria.
•
They discovered Prochlorococcus which contains divinyl-chlorophyll
(DChl) a which has a slightly different adsorption spectrum when
compared to Chlorophyll a.
•
It lacks phycobilipigment which is commonly found in Synechococcus as
ltypical light harvesting antenna.
1996
Discovery of chlorophyll d

A cyanobacterium known as Acaryochloris marina which utilizes Chloroph

•

yll d to perform oxygenic photosynthesis was reported.

Chlorophyll d is a red shifted cholrophyll which can absorb far red light 30
•

nm longer than chloropyhll a. (700~710nm)

Chlorophyll d is used as the light harvesting system antenna & chlorophylls
•

in the reaction centres.

This is a major discovery as from 1990 to 1995, Chlorophyll a was
•

understood to be the major photosynthetic pigment.

2000
Discovery of AAPB & PR containing bacteria

•
AAPB ( Aerobic anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria) was derived from
non-sulfur purple bacteria (An APB) & requires oxygen to synthesise
BChl a and for growth as well.
•
AAPB utilizes the BChls (bacteriochlorophylls) instead of chlorophyll a to
carry out photosynthesis.
•
Both APB & AAPB contains BChl a.
2007
Discovery of phytoplankton of unknown phylum

•
Metagenomic analysis of a plankton fraction of less tham 3um in size led
to the discovery of phytoplankton which did not belong to any known phyl
um of the algae.
•
It was tentatively named picobiliphytes & are distributed widely in coastal
area of Europe & North Atlantic.
•
Cell number reaches up to 1.6 percent of total eukaryotic phytoplankton.
2010
Discovery of chlorophyll f & picophytoplankton

•
Chlorophyll f was reported to be found from a cyanobacterium isolated fro
m the microbial mat on stromatosite at the coast of Australia.
•
However, Chlorophyll f is not taken into account in the estimation of prim
ary production in marine environment as more research need to be carried
out to understand more about chlorophyll f.
•
Several reports on marine picophytoplankton analysis using the techniques
of metagenome and flow cytometry.
•
A pigment called 19HF is detected in picoplankton. +
2011
Discovery of Rappemonads & UCYN-A

•
A new phylum was detected by using metagenomic analysis targeting
plastid DNA and it was tentatively named Rappemonads.
•
They were close to haptophytes but did not belong to any known phyla
phylogenetically.
•
Widely distributed in coastal areas of Europe, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
•
UCYN-A was detected by metagenomic analysis of nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in marine waters.
•
UCYN-A has photosystem Ⅰ & chlorophyll but lacks photosystem Ⅱ,
RuBisCo & Tricarboxylic acid cycle.
Current times
New understanding of primary producers

•
Besides diatoms & flagellates, haptophytes, cyanobacteria, AAPB, & PR-
containing bacteria all contributes to the primary production of the ,arine
environment.
•
Organic carbon produced by primary producers is also a part of the energy
transfer cycle as it can be consumed by heterotrophic bacteria or higher
predators.
•
There are still more unexplored regions for this topic, thus more research
can be done on this topic.