Clade-Specific Quantitative Analysis of Photosynthetic Gene Expression in Prochlorococcus

Abstract

Newly designed primers targeting rbcL (CO2 fixation), psbA (photosystem II) and rnpB (reference) genes were used in qRT-PCR assays to assess the photosynthetic capability of natural communities of Prochlorococcus, the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth and a major contributor to primary production in oligotrophic oceans. After optimizing sample collection methodology, we analyzed a total of 62 stations from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation (including Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans) at three different depths. Sequence and quantitative analyses of the corresponding amplicons showed the presence of high-light (HL) and low-light (LL) Prochlorococcus clades in essentially all 182 samples, with a largely uniform stratification of LL and HL sequences. Synechococcus cross-amplifications were detected by the taxon-specific melting temperatures of the amplicons. Laboratory exposure of Prochlorococcus MED4 (HL) and MIT9313 (LL) strains to organic pollutants (PAHs and organochlorine compounds) showed a decrease of rbcL transcript abundances, and of the rbcL to psbA ratios for both strains. We propose this technique as a convenient assay to evaluate effects of environmental stressors, including pollution, on the oceanic Prochlorococcus photosynthetic function.

Fig 1. Oceanic stations from Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation selected for RNA analysis.

Stations labeled in red correspond to those from which amplicon sequences were obtained.

Fig 2. Relative expression of rbcL and psbA in surface (orange), DCM (green) and DCM+40 m (blue) samples for HL (left) and LL (right) clades.

The boxes indicate data distribution parameters: range (whiskers), 25 to 75 percentiles (boxes) and median (thick horizontal bar). Circles represent outliers. Letters indicate statistically different distribution (ANOVA plus SD Tukey post hoc test); the corresponding p values are indicated at the bottom.

Fig 3. Representation of amplicon melting temperature (Tm) values, in°C, plotted against Cp values (in cycles) obtained for field samples at the three sampled depths: Surface (orange), DCM (green) and DCM+40 (blue).

For comparison, the graphs include the corresponding values from supplementary S3 Table. HL amplicons: Prochlorococcus strains MED4 (M4), MIT9515 (M5) and EQPAC1-C (EQ). LL amplicons: Prochlorococcus strains MIT9313 (M3), NATL2A (NA), and the Synechococcus strain WH7803 (WH).

Fig 4. Cladograms of sequences from amplicons derived from field and laboratory samples compared to the closest sequences identified by BLAST.

Two qRT-PCR products were sequenced for each sample from Atlantic, Indian and Pacific 1 stations, and only one for Pacific 2 samples (more information in supplementary S4 Table). Amplicons from surface, DCM, and DCM+40 samples from the different stations are identified with "S", "D" and "D40" letters. Panels a-c correspond to HL amplicons, whereas panels d-f correspond to LL amplicons. For each ecotype, cladograms corresponding to rnpB (a,d), rbcL (b,e) and psbA (c,f) genes are presented. The trees also include sequences from the GenBank. LL Prochlorococcus, HL Prochlorococcus, and Synechococcus (Syn.) sequences are indicated by dark green, light green and red colors, respectively. Amplicons from MIT9313 and MED4 strains grown in the lab were also sequenced and included in the analysis as MIT9313-Lab and MED4-Lab, respectively. Sequences for uncultured microorganism isolates are marked as U.P. (identified as Prochlorococcus), U.Syn. (identified as Synechococcus) or U.O, (not identified).

Fig 5. Graphic representation of the different temporal responses of MED4 (green circles) and MIT9313 (blue triangles) to pollutants.

Results from PAH and OClP treatments are pooled together. Significant differences in mRNA abundance between treated and untreated cultures are marked with asterisks (*, p<0.05; **, p<0.01). Whiskers indicate 95% confidence limits.