Year: 2018
Type: review
Abstract: This review surveys the current state of knowledge of the concentrations, sources and sinks of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the ocean. Both abiotic and biotic factors contribute to ROS dynamics in seawater, and ROS can feature prominently in marine microbe-microbe interactions. The sun plays a key role in the production of ROS in the ocean, and consequently ROS concentrations are typically maximal in the sun-exposed surface. However, microbes can also contribute significantly to extracellular ROS. Production of superoxide is widespread within the microbial community, and may benefit the producers as antimicrobial agents or perhaps more generally, as a means of nutrient scavenging. Decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is a community-wide activity, though some members may play less significant roles in this process. The more reactive forms of ROS, singlet oxygen and the hydroxyl radical, may be less important as microbial stressors, as they tend to react with the chemicals in seawater before they can contact the cells. However, exceptions may exist for microbes attached to singlet oxygen-generating sinking particulate matter. Extracellular ROS thus plays an important role in the ecology of marine microbes, the full extent to which we are only beginning to appreciate.
Author: Erik R. Zinser
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: Collaborative Research: Ecotypic Diversity and Adaptation of Prochlorococcus in the Stratified, HighTemperature Waters of the Western Pacific Warm Pool, Intracellular DOM: Fate and flux at the microbial nodes of C and N cycles in the ocean, with a focus on the primary producer Prochlorococcus, Collaborative Research: Seasonal and decadal changes in temperature drive Prochlorococcus ecotype distribution patterns
OpenAlex ID: W2790191565