Open AccessHighest plasticity of carbon‐concentrating mechanisms in earliest evolved phytoplankton
Author(s) -
Van de Waal Dedmer B.,
Brandenburg Karen M.,
Keuskamp Joost,
Trimborn Scarlett,
Rokitta Sebastian,
Kranz Sven A.,
Rost Björn
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2378-2242
DOI - 10.1002/lol2.10102
Subject(s) - rubisco , photosynthesis , phytoplankton , cyanobacteria , pyruvate carboxylase , biology , botany , ribulose , chemistry , enzyme , ecology , biochemistry , nutrient , paleontology , bacteria
Phytoplankton photosynthesis strongly relies on the operation of carbon‐concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) to accumulate CO 2 around their carboxylating enzyme ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO). Earlier evolved phytoplankton groups were shown to exhibit higher CCM activities to compensate for their RuBisCO with low CO 2 specificities. Here, we tested whether earlier evolved phytoplankton groups also exhibit a higher CCM plasticity. To this end, we collected data from literature and applied a Bayesian linear meta‐analytic model. Our results show that with elevated p CO 2 , photosynthetic CO 2 affinities decreased strongest and most consistent for the earlier evolved groups, i.e., cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, while CO 2 ‐dependent changes in affinities for haptophytes and diatoms were smaller and less consistent. In addition, responses of maximum photosynthetic rates toward elevated p CO 2 were generally small and inconsistent across species. Our results demonstrate that phytoplankton groups with an earlier origin possess a high CCM plasticity, whereas more recently evolved groups do not, which likely results from evolved differences in the CO 2 specificity of RuBisCO.