Project: Environmental stress and signaling based on reactive oxygen species among planktonic protists

Description from NSF proposal:
This proposal arises from the central premise that the oxidative stress response is an emergent property of phototrophic cellular systems, with implications for nearly every aspect of a phytoplankton cell’s life in the upper ocean. Oxidative stress (OS) arises from the uncompensated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within a cell, which can occur in response to a myriad of environmental stressors (e.g. nutrient limitation, temperature extremes, toxins, variable light exposure). In addition to the biochemical damage and physiological impairment that OS can cause, the phytoplankton OS response also includes increased net production and extracellular release of ROS, osmolytes, and other compounds that are known or suspected to be potent signals regulating protist behavior. We hypothesize that, through chemical signaling, oxidative stress acts to govern relationships among environmental variability, phytoplankton condition, and protist predation. Our proposed study of these integrated signaling and response processes has three overarching objectives: 1) Create and characterize oxidatively stressed phytoplankton. We will use light stress (variable exposure to visible light and UV) to create oxidatively stressed phytoplankton in the laboratory. Common coastal taxa with contrasting stress responses will be characterized using an array of fluorescent probes, biochemical measurements, and physiological assays. In addition, intracellular production and extracellular release of ROS and the associated chemical signal DMSP will be quantified. Use of Phaeodactylum tricornutum light stress mutants will add an independent means of connecting OS to signal production and predation response. 2) Examine protist predator responses to oxidatively stressed phytoplankton and associated chemical signals. Responses will be investigated by means of manipulation experiments and thorough characterization of associated signal chemistry. Assessment of predator response will be via predation rate measurements and population aggregation/dispersal behaviors in structured columns. 3) Investigate the prevalence of OS, its environmental correlates, and the microzooplankton predation response in the natural waters of a well-characterized local embayment. Application of ROS probes and OS assays to the natural environment and the design of OS manipulation experiments will be informed by the laboratory experiments using local protist species.

Our work will help to elucidate some of the multiple ways in which the OS response can affect phytoplankton fitness, contributing information that can be used to characterize the position of key coastal species along an OS response spectrum. Ultimately such information could be used in trait-based conceptual and numerical models in a manner analogous to cell size and other 'master traits'. Our research will also inform the relatively new and exciting field of chemical signaling in planktonic communities, exploring DMSP- and ROS-based signaling between two of the most significant groups in the plankton, the eukaryotic phytoplankton and their protist predators. Finally, findings will help elucidate the links between environmental stress, phytoplankton response, and predation in planktonic ecosystems. These links relate to central issues in biological oceanography, including the predator-prey interactions that influence bloom demise, and the mechanisms by which protists feed selectively and thereby structure prey communities. The proposed research is a cross-cutting endeavor that unites subjects usually studied in isolation through a novel conceptual framework. Thus the findings have the potential to generate broadly applicable new insights into the ecological and evolutionary regulation of this key trophic link in planktonic food webs.