We all know how important it is to get our daily dose of vitamins. Turns out marine plankton are just like us — they require specific vitamins to survive and thrive in the ocean. Like humans, they typically synthesize certain vitamins internally but fare much better when they boost their supply using external sources. Think of the nutrient- and vitamin-rich waters surrounding a plankton as a feast of fruits and vegetables that supplement their natural supply. When the synthesis process is inhibited, however, those external sources become the sole source of critical vitamins.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently investigated the marine phytoplankton Ostreococcus and Micromonas, both of which lack the ability to synthesize vitamin B1, an important factor influencing their metabolism, and depend entirely on external sources to get their recommended daily value. They are missing parts of the molecular pathway that allow them to synthesize vitamin B1, but the research team hypothesized that a “precursor,” a form of the vitamin that is partially synthesized, allows them to skip the steps in the pathway they happen to be missing. Phytoplankton growth was stimulated when they were cultivated with precursor-producing bacterioplankton, demonstrating that the phytoplankton can still produce vitamin B1 as long as a predecessor of the vitamin is made available in their surrounding environment.
The research team also wondered if supply of the precursor was sufficient in the ocean to support growth of Ostreococcus and Micromonas. They found high concentrations of the precursor in coastal Pacific waters where abundance of the phytoplankton is high. They also found overall that the precursors were much more readily available than vitamin B1 itself, making precursors an important resource for phytoplankton to complete their vitamin B1-synthesizing pathway.
Read the full article here.
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