• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Academic Programs
    • WHOI Theses
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Academic Programs
    • WHOI Theses
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Linking microbial metabolism and organic matter cycling through metabolite distributions in the ocean

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Johnson_thesis.pdf (14.01Mb)
    Date
    2017-02
    Author
    Johnson, Winifred M.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8684
    DOI
    10.1575/1912/8684
    Keyword
     Carbon; Microorganisms 
    Abstract
    Key players in the marine carbon cycle are the ocean-dwelling microbes that fix, remineralize, and transform organic matter. Many of the small organic molecules in the marine carbon pool have not been well characterized and their roles in microbial physiology, ecological interactions, and carbon cycling remain largely unknown. In this dissertation metabolomics techniques were developed and used to profile and quantify a suite of metabolites in the field and in laboratory experiments. Experiments were run to study the way a specific metabolite can influence microbial metabolite output and potentially processing of organic matter. Specifically, the metabolic response of the heterotrophic marine bacterium, Ruegeria pomeroyi, to the algal metabolite dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) was analyzed using targeted and untargeted metabolomics. The manner in which DMSP causes R. pomeroyi to modify its biochemical pathways suggests anticipation by R. pomeroyi of phytoplankton-derived nutrients and higher microbial density. Targeted metabolomics was used to characterize the latitudinal and vertical distributions of particulate and dissolved metabolites in samples gathered along a transect in the Western Atlantic Ocean. The assembled dataset indicates that, while many metabolite distributions co-vary with biomass abundance, other metabolites show distributions that suggest abiotic, species specific, or metabolic controls on their variability. On sinking particles in the South Atlantic portion of the transect, metabolites possibly derived from degradation of organic matter increase and phytoplankton-derived metabolites decrease. This work highlights the role DMSP plays in the metabolic response of a bacterium to the environment and reveals unexpected ways metabolite abundances vary between ocean regions and are transformed on sinking particles. Further metabolomics studies of the global distributions and interactions of marine biomolecules promise to provide new insights into microbial processes and metabolite cycling.
    Description
    Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 2017
    Collections
    • WHOI Theses
    • Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry (MC&G)
    Suggested Citation
    Thesis: Johnson, Winifred M., "Linking microbial metabolism and organic matter cycling through metabolite distributions in the ocean", 2017-02, DOI:10.1575/1912/8684, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8684
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      The sediments and stratigraphy of the East Coast continental margin : Georges Bank to Norfolk Canyon 

      Stetson, Henry C. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1949-08)
      The continental shelf off the northeastern coast of the United States was the first of our offshore coastal areas to be charted in detail by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, starting on Georges Bank in 1930. The techniques ...
    • Thumbnail

      Mixing and dynamics of the Mediterranean outflow 

      Baringer, Molly O. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1993-10)
      Hydrographic and expendable current profiler (XCP) data taken during the Gulf of Cadiz Expedition in September 1988 are analyzed to diagnose the mixing and dynamics of the Mediterranean outflow. The overall structure of ...
    • Thumbnail

      The structure of the Kuroshio west of Kyushu 

      Chen, Changsheng (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-09)
      A triangular CTD/ADCP survey was made across the Kuroshio west of Kyushu aboard the R/V Thompson during January, 1986 in order to investigate the water properties and flow field in the Kuroshio. A similar CTD survey was ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo