Microbial Metalloenzymes in Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Health

durch Viktoria Steck (FB2-CH)

Mittwoch 11.02.2026, 13:15 → 14:30 Europe/Berlin

5-1.213 - PAZIFIK / PACIFIC- Rechte Seite - Großer, unterteilbarer Konferenzraum (GEOMAR - Standort Ostufer / GEOMAR - East Shore)

Abstract:

Anthropogenic impacts threaten our oceanic planetary support system and its underlying microbial biogeochemical cycles. Elucidating how marine microorganisms drive these cycles on the molecular level is instrumental for predicting their responses to changing environmental conditions. Proteins, especially metal-containing enzymes, are biochemical machines that help microbes acquire, trade, transform, and recycle essential nutrients. One example of their importance pertains the nutrient phosphorus, which is predicted to become increasingly limiting due to climate-change induced ocean stratification and enhanced anthropogenic nitrogen pollution. To cope with phosphorus shortages, marine microbes express phosphatase enzymes to access the alternative nutrient source of dissolved organic phosphorus. While previously regarded as depending on iron or zinc as cofactor, we present novel evidence for manganese in regulating the efficiency of phosphatases and thus microbial nutrition and ecosystem health. Using purified enzymes from marine diatoms, we demonstrate that phosphatases can employ manganese for the degradation of diverse organic phosphorus compounds. Through incubation experiments, we establish that ambient manganese availability regulates phosphorus cycling within natural phytoplankton communities. Lastly, we apply metatranscriptomics to investigate the functional diversity of microbial phosphatases across different environmental habitats. Overall, this work generates new insights into the nutritional mechanisms of marine primary producers and the coupling of phosphorus and trace metals in biogeochemical cycles, and highlights the potential of metalloenzyme studies in further understanding controls on ocean ecosystem fertility.

Meeting-Link:
https://geomar.webex.com/geomar/j.php?MTID=m7dfa143383f625352b3b79962018ee54