Specific rates of leucine incorporation by marine bacterioplantkon in the open Mediterranean Sea in summer using cell sorting

Abstract

Abstract. Cell-specific leucine incorporation rates were determined in early summer across the open stratified Mediterranean Sea along vertical profiles from 0 to 200 m. During the period of our study, the bulk leucine incorporation rate was on average 5.0 ± 4.0 (n=31) pmol leu l−1 h−1. After 3H-radiolabeled leucine incorporation and SyBR Green I staining, populations were sorted using flow cytometry. Heterotrophic prokaryotes (Hprok) were divided in several clusters according to the cytometric properties of side scatter and green fluorescence of the cells: the low nucleic acid content cells (LNA) and the high nucleic acid content cells (HNA), with high size and low size (HNA-hs and HNA-ls, respectively). LNA cells represented 45 to 63% of the Hprok abundance between surface and 200 m, and significantly contributed to the bulk activity, from 17 to 55% all along the transect. The HNA/LNA ratio of cell-specific activities was on average 2.1 ± 0.7 (n=31). Among Hprok populations from surface samples (0 down to the deep chlorophyll depth, DCM), HNA-hs was mostly responsible for the leucine incorporation activity. Its cell-specific activity was up to 13.3 and 6.9-fold higher than that of HNA-ls and LNA, respectively, and it varied within a wide range of values (0.9–54.3×10−21 mol leu cell−1 h−1). At the opposite, ratios between the specific activities of the 3 populations tended to get closer to each other, below the DCM, implying a potentially higher homogeneity in activity of Hprok in the vicinity of nutriclines. Prochlorococcus cells were easily sorted near the DCM and displayed cell-specific activities equally high, sometimes higher than the HNA-hs group (2.5–55×10−21 mol leu cell−1 h−1). We then showed that all the sorted populations were key-players in leucine incorporation into proteins. The mixotrophic feature of certain photosynthetic prokaryotes and the non-negligible activity of LNA cells all over Mediterranean were reinforced.