Charles Bachy

La diversité des protistes marins planctoniques, après avoir été historiquement étudiée sur des critères morphologiques, est depuis récemment sujette à une intense recherche à l’aide d’approches moléculaires. Notamment, les études basées sur l’amplification directe de marqueurs moléculaires à partir d’ADN environnemental ont révélées une exceptionnelle diversité. L’objectif central de ce travail est d’améliorer notre compréhension sur le lien existant entre la connaissance classique des eucaryotes unicellulaires et leur diversité estimée à partir des données moléculaires, en particulier pour une meilleure interprétation des processus évolutifs et écologiques. Pour cela, nous avons utilisé comme système modèle l’ordre des ciliés tintinnidés (Tintinnida) qui constituent un groupe riche en espèces, aisément identifiables au microscope grâce à leur coquille externe (lorica) et communément rencontrés dans l’ensemble des eaux marines et lacustres du monde. Un suivi approfondi sur deux ans des tintinnidés de la Baie de Villefranche-sur-Mer (Mer Méditerrannée, France), couplant des analyses moléculaires de la diversité à partir de cellules individuelles et à partir d’ADN environnemental, a permis de caractériser la composition de ces communautés et leur dynamique temporelle aux échelles macro- et micro-évolutives. La première partie de ce travail a été destinée à la réalisation d’une phylogénie moléculaire de référence pour les tintinnidés en incorporant les séquences de 62 individus de morphologies diverses pour lesquelles des données moléculaires n'étaient pas disponibles. Nous avons amplifié et séquencé les gènes codant pour les ARN ribosomiques (ARNr 18S, 5.8S et 28S) et les espaces intergéniques correspondants (ITS1 et ITS2). La classification taxonomique a été réévaluée d’après les données moléculaires. Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons testé l’efficacité des approches moléculaires conventionnelles (amplification, clonage et séquençage Sanger du gène de l'ARNr 18S) et plus récentes (amplification et pyroséquençage de régions de l'ARNr 18S et de l’ITS), pour décrire la composition des communautés des tintinnidés dans des échantillons environnementaux en les comparant avec des estimations de la diversité par observation morphologique sur les mêmes échantillons. Si il existe de légères incongruences entre les approches et/ou les différents marqueurs employés, les approches cultureindépendantes s’avèrent efficaces pour décrire la diversité morphologique. En revanche, afin de ne pas surévaluer artificiellement le nombre d’espèces estimées à partir des données de pyroséquençage, il faut que des méthodes de débruitage et de regroupement en unités taxonomiques opérationnelles (UTOs) contraignantes soient appliquées. La troisième partie de ce travail a été dédiée au suivi temporel des communautés de tintinnidés à différentes profondeurs dans la baie de Villefranche, basé sur le clonage et le séquençage du gène de l'ARNr 18S et des régions ITS. Il apparaît des différences de distribution au cours de l’année à une même profondeur, en particulier en termes d’abondance de séquences pour une UTO donnée. Malgré un cadre phylogénétique solide et assez enrichi, l’approche moléculaire révèle des séquences éloignées des espèces déjà séquencées. La découverte de ces clades environnementaux souligne potentiellement l’importance écologique d’espèces encore mal connues. Enfin, le séquençage direct du gène de l'ARNr 18S et de l'ITS2 à partir des cellules individuelles de l'espèce a offert l’opportunité d’une étude populationnelle sur une période de deux ans. La diversité intra-spécifique mesurée met à jour des phénomènes d’hybridation entre variantes génétiques. Une structuration génétique temporelle a également été observée pour le gène de l'ARNr 18S. Les implications de ces différentes recherches sont discutées dans le cadre de l’étude de la diversité et de l’écologie des tintinnidés, et plus largement, des protistes marins.

Marine eastern boundary current ecosystems, such as the California Current System (CCS), involve productive, mesotrophic transition zones. The CCS exhibits highly variable primary production (PP), yet factors driving the variability and underlying phytoplankton communities remain poorly understood. We integrated physicochemical and biological data from surface waters sampled during 10 CCS expeditions, spanning 13 yr, and resolved regimes with distinct phytoplankton communities. Additional to an oligotrophic regime (OR), mesotrophic waters beyond the coastal area partitioned into Meso‐High and Meso‐Low regimes, differing in nitrate concentrations and PP. The OR was dominated by Prochlorococcus High‐Light I (HLI), and eukaryotic phytoplankton were largely predatory mixotrophs. Eukaryotes dominated Meso‐Low and Meso‐High phytoplankton biomass. Within the Meso‐Low, Pelagomonas calceolata was important, and Prochlorococcus Low‐Light I (LLI) rose in prominence. In the Meso‐High, the picoprasinophyte Ostreococcus lucimarinus was abundant, and Synechococcus Clade IV was notable. The Meso‐High exhibited the highest PP (38 ± 16 mg C m⁻³ d⁻¹; p < 0.01) and higher growth rates for photosynthetic eukaryotes (0.84 ± 0.02 d⁻¹) than for Prochlorococcus (0.61 ± 0.01 d⁻¹) and Synechococcus (0.31 ± 0.05 d⁻¹). An experiment simulating seasonal oligotrophic seawater intrusion into the Meso‐High resulted in growth rates reaching 1.18 ± 0.10 d⁻¹ (O. lucimarinus), 0.75 ± 0.21 d⁻¹ (Prochlorococcus LLI), and 0.50 ± 0.04 d⁻¹ (Synechococcus EPC2). Thus, variable PP is underpinned by distinct phytoplankton communities across CCS mesotrophic regimes, and their dynamic nature is influenced by the rapidity with which specific taxa respond to changing environmental conditions or possibly transient nutrient release from viral encounters. Future work should assess whether these dynamics are consistent across eastern boundary current ecosystems and over temporal variations.

Ocean spring phytoplankton blooms are dynamic periods important to global primary production. We document vertical patterns of a diverse suite of eukaryotic algae, the prasinophytes, in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre with monthly sampling over four years at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site. Water column structure was used to delineate seasonal stability periods more ecologically relevant than seasons defined by calendar dates. During winter mixing, tiny prasinophytes dominated by Class II comprise 46 ± 24% of eukaryotic algal (plastid-derived) 16S rRNA V1-V2 amplicons, specifically Ostreococcus Clade OII, Micromonas commoda, and Bathycoccus calidus. In contrast, Class VII are rare and Classes I and VI peak during warm stratified periods when surface eukaryotic phytoplankton abundances are low. Seasonality underpins a reservoir of genetic diversity from multiple prasinophyte classes during warm periods that harbor ephemeral taxa. Persistent Class II sub-species dominating the winter/spring bloom period retreat to the deep chlorophyll maximum in summer, poised to seed the mixed layer upon winter convection, exposing a mechanism for initiating high abundances at bloom onset. Comparisons to tropical oceans reveal broad distributions of the dominant sub-species herein. This unparalleled window into temporal and spatial niche partitioning of picoeukaryotic primary producers demonstrates how key prasinophytes prevail in warm oceans.

Microbial rhodopsins are photoreceptor proteins that convert light into biological signals or energy. Proteins of the xanthorhodopsin family are common in eukaryotic photosynthetic plankton including diatoms. However, their biological role in these organisms remains elusive. Here we report on a xanthorhodopsin variant (FcR1) isolated from the polar diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus. Applying a combination of biophysical, biochemical and reverse genetics approaches, we demonstrate that FcR1 is a plastid-localized proton pump which binds the chromophore retinal and is activated by green light. Enhanced growth of a Thalassiora pseudonana gain-of-function mutant expressing FcR1 under iron limitation shows that the xanthorhodopsin proton pump supports growth when chlorophyll-based photosynthesis is iron-limited. The abundance of xanthorhodopsin transcripts in natural diatom communities of the surface oceans is anticorrelated with the availability of dissolved iron. Thus, we propose that these proton pumps convey a fitness advantage in regions where phytoplankton growth is limited by the availability of dissolved iron.

L’océan est le réservoir le plus important de virus sur la planète avec des abondances allant jusqu’à plusieurs milliards par litre. Ces virus sont une force directrice majeure pour l’évolution et la structuration du monde microbien, mais aussi pour le fonctionnement des grands cycles biogéochimiques dans les écosystèmes marins. Grâce aux techniques de séquençage à haut débit, nous commençons à entrevoir la diversité et la complexité de cette virosphère marine. Cette synthèse décrit les découvertes importantes dans le domaine de l’écologie virale marine et aborde la diversité de ces micro-organismes fascinants, leur impact sur la mortalité microbienne et les cycles de nutriments et d’énergie dans l’océan.

The smallest phytoplankton species are key actors in oceans biogeochemical cycling and their abundance and distribution are affected with global environmental changes. Among them, algae of the Pelagophyceae class encompass coastal species causative of harmful algal blooms while others are cosmopolitan and abundant. The lack of genomic reference in this lineage is a main limitation to study its ecological importance. Here, we analysed Pelagomonas calceolata relative abundance, ecological niche and potential for the adaptation in all oceans using a complete chromosome-scale assembled genome sequence. Our results show that P. calceolata is one of the most abundant eukaryotic species in the oceans with a relative abundance favoured by high temperature, low-light and iron-poor conditions. Climate change projections based on its relative abundance suggest an extension of the P. calceolata habitat toward the poles at the end of this century. Finally, we observed a specific gene repertoire and expression level variations potentially explaining its ecological success in low-iron and low-nitrate environments. Collectively, these findings reveal the ecological importance of P. calceolata and lay the foundation for a global scale analysis of the adaptation and acclimation strategies of this small phytoplankton in a changing environment.

Microbial predators such as choanoflagellates are key players in ocean food webs. Choanoflagellates, which are the closest unicellular relatives of animals, consume bacteria and also exhibit marked biological transitions triggered by bacterial compounds, yet their native microbiomes remain uncharacterized. Here we report the discovery of a ubiquitous, uncultured bacterial lineage we nameCandidatusComchoanobacterales ord. nov., related to the human pathogenCoxiellaand physically associated with the uncultured marine choanoflagellateBicosta minor. We analyse complete ‘Comchoano’ genomes acquired after sorting singleBicostacells, finding signatures of obligate host-dependence, including reduction of pathways encoding glycolysis, membrane components, amino acids and B-vitamins. Comchoano encode the necessary apparatus to import energy and other compounds from the host, proteins for host-cell associations and a type IV secretion system closest toCoxiella’sthat is expressed in Pacific Ocean metatranscriptomes. Interactions between choanoflagellates and their microbiota could reshape the direction of energy and resource flow attributed to microbial predators, adding complexity and nuance to marine food webs.

The colonization of land by plants generated opportunities for the rise of new heterotrophic life forms, including humankind. A unique event underpinned this massive change to earth ecosystems—the advent of eukaryotic green algae. Today, an abundant marine green algal group, the prasinophytes, alongside prasinodermophytes and nonmarine chlorophyte algae, is facilitating insights into plant developments. Genome-level data allow identification of conserved proteins and protein families with extensive modifications, losses, or gains and expansion patterns that connect to niche specialization and diversification. Here, we contextualize attributes according to Viridiplantae evolutionary relationships, starting with orthologous protein families, and then focusing on key elements with marked differentiation, resulting in patchy distributions across green algae and plants. We place attention on peptidoglycan biosynthesis, important for plastid division and walls; phytochrome photosensors that are master regulators in plants; and carbohydrate-active enzymes, essential to all manner of carbohydratebiotransformations. Together with advances in algal model systems, these areas are ripe for discovering molecular roles and innovations within and across plant and algal lineages.

Critical questions exist regarding the abundance and, especially, the export of picophytoplankton (≤2 µm diameter) in the Arctic. These organisms can dominate chlorophyll concentrations in Arctic regions, which are subject to rapid change. The picoeukaryotic prasinophyte Micromonas grows in polar environments and appears to constitute a large, but variable, proportion of the phytoplankton in these waters. Here, we analyze 81 samples from the upper 100 m of the water column from the Fram Strait collected over multiple years (2009–2015). We also analyze sediment trap samples to examine picophytoplankton contributions to export, using both 18S rRNA gene qPCR and V1-V2 16S rRNA Illumina amplicon sequencing to assess the Micromonas abundance within the broader diversity of photosynthetic eukaryotes based on the phylogenetic placement of plastid-derived 16S amplicons. The material sequenced from the sediment traps in July and September 2010 showed that 11.2 ± 12.4% of plastid-derived amplicons are from picoplanktonic prasinophyte algae and other green lineage (Viridiplantae) members. In the traps, Micromonas dominated (83.6 ± 21.3%) in terms of the overall relative abundance of Viridiplantae amplicons, specifically the species Micromonas polaris. Temporal variations in Micromonas abundances quantified by qPCR were also observed, with higher abundances in the late-July traps and deeper traps. In the photic zone samples, four prasinophyte classes were detected in the amplicon data, with Micromonas again being the dominant prasinophyte, based on the relative abundance (89.4 ± 8.0%), but with two species (M. polaris and M. commoda-like) present. The quantitative PCR assessments showed that the photic zone samples with higher Micromonas abundances (>1000 gene copies per mL) had significantly lower standing stocks of phosphate and nitrate, and a shallower average depth (20 m) than those with fewer Micromonas. This study shows that despite their size, prasinophyte picophytoplankton are exported to the deep sea, and that Micromonas is particularly important within this size fraction in Arctic marine ecosystems.