phytoplankton

Shifting metabolic priorities among key protistan taxa within and below the euphotic zone

A metatranscriptome study targeting the protistan community was conducted off the coast of Southern California, at the San Pedro Ocean Time‐series station at the surface, 150 m (oxycline), and 890 m to link putative metabolic patterns to distinct …

Transcriptional response of the harmful raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo to nitrate and phosphate stress

The marine eukaryotic alga *Heterosigma akashiwo* (Raphidophyceae) is known for forming ichthyotoxic harmful algal blooms (HABs). In the past 50 years, *H. akashiwo* blooms have increased, occurring globally in highly eutrophic coastal and estuarine …

Conserved transcriptional responses to nutrient stress in bloom-forming algae

The concentration and composition of bioavailable nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the upper ocean shape eukaryotic phytoplankton communities and influence their physiological responses. Phytoplankton are known to exhibit similar physiological …

Virus-host relationships of marine single-celled eukaryotes resolved from metatranscriptomics

Establishing virus–host relationships has historically relied on culture-dependent approaches. Here we report on the use of marine metatranscriptomics to probe virus–host relationships. Statistical co-occurrence analyses of dsDNA, ssRNA and dsRNA …

Phosphorus availability regulates intracellular nucleotides in marine eukaryotic phytoplankton

Marine eukaryotic phytoplankton adapt to low phosphorus (P) in the oceans through a variety of step‐wise mechanisms including lipid substitution and decreased nucleic acid content. Here, we examined the impact of low P concentrations on intracellular …

Functional group-specific traits drive phytoplankton dynamics in the oligotrophic ocean

A diverse microbial assemblage in the ocean is responsible for nearly half of global primary production. It has been hypothesized and experimentally demonstrated that nutrient loading can stimulate blooms of large eukaryotic phytoplankton in …

Metatranscriptome analyses indicate resource partitioning between diatoms in the field

Diverse communities of marine phytoplankton carry out half of global primary production. The vast diversity of the phytoplankton has long perplexed ecologists because these organisms coexist in an isotropic environment while competing for the same …

Sixty Years of Sverdrup: A Retrospective of Progress in the Study of Phytoplankton Blooms

One of the most dramatic large-scale features in the ocean is the seasonal greening of the North Atlantic in spring and summer due to the accumulation of phytoplankton biomass in the surface layer. In 1953, Harald Ulrik Sverdrup hypothesized a now …

Identifying reference genes with stable expression from high throughput sequence data

Genes that are constitutively expressed across multiple environmental stimuli are crucial to quantifying differentially expressed genes, particularly when employing quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. …