Iron stress genes in marine Synechococcus and the development of a flow cytometric iron stress assay.

Marine Synechococcus are frequently found in environments where iron (Fe) is a limiting nutrient. To understand their capacity to respond to Fe stress, we screened picoplankton genomes and the Global Ocean Survey metagenome for known Fe stress genes. Many open ocean strains of Synechococcus lack most known genes for Fe stress, while coastal and upwelling strains contain many, suggesting that maintaining multiple Fe limitation compensation strategies is not a selective advantage in the open ocean. All genomes contained iron deficiency-induced protein A (IdiA) and its complementary Fe(3+) transport proteins. The ubiquity of IdiA was exploited to develop an in situ Fe stress bioassay based on immunolabelling and flow cytometry. As a test of field applicability, we used the assay on natural Synechococcus populations from one station in the Costa Rica Upwelling Dome where total Fe ranged from <0.08 to 0.14 nM in the upper water column. The bioassay found Fe stress in 5-54% of the population. Based on our findings, we believe that when reactive strains are present this assay can reveal environmental and clade-specific differences in the response of Synechococcus to Fe stress.

Use of a modified, high-sensitivity, anodic stripping voltammetry method for determination of zinc speciation in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Zinc speciation is considered to be an important determinant of the biological availability of zinc. Yet in oceanic surface waters, characterization of zinc speciation is difficult due to the low concentrations of this essential micronutrient. In this study, an anodic stripping voltammetry method previously developed for the total determination of cadmium and lead was successfully adapted to the measurement of zinc speciation. The method differs from previous zinc speciation anodic stripping voltammetry methods in that a fresh mercury film is plated with each sample aliquot. The fresh film anodic stripping voltammetry method was compared to competitive ligand exchange cathodic stripping voltammetry in a profile from the North Atlantic Ocean. Results using the fresh film anodic stripping voltammetry method were similar to those determined using the cathodic stripping voltammetry method, though ligand concentrations determined by fresh film anodic stripping voltammetry were generally slightly higher than those determined by cathodic stripping voltammetry. There did not seem to be a systematic difference between methods for the estimates of conditional stability constants. The ligand concentration in the North Atlantic profile ranged from 0.9 to 1.5 nmol L(-1) as determined by fresh film anodic stripping voltammetry and 0.6 to 1.3 nmol L(-1) as determined by cathodic stripping voltammetry. The conditional stability constants determined by fresh film anodic stripping voltammetry were 10(9.8)-10(10.5) and by cathodic stripping voltammetry were 10(9.8)-10(11.3).