Multispecies diel transcriptional oscillations in open ocean heterotrophic bacterial assemblages

Abstract

Up and down go the cyanobacteria Plankton move together in strikingly coordinated daily patterns, sinking at night to avoid being eaten and rising to the surface in daylight to photosynthesize. Otteson et al. found similar activity patterns in even the smallest of planktonic organisms, such as photosynthetic bacteria (see the Perspective by Armbrust). Because it's hard to take regular samples in the open ocean, the authors built a robotic sampler and set it adrift for several days in the mid-Pacific. The captured bacteria showed immediate responses to changes in light, temperature, and salinity in ways that could affect the ocean's carbon and nitrogen cycles. Science , this issue p. 207 ; see also p. 134