TY - JOUR
T1 - Decreased motility of flagellated microalgae long-term acclimated to CO2-induced acidified waters
AU - Wang, Yitao
AU - Fan, Xiao
AU - Gao, Guang
AU - Beardall, John
AU - Inaba, Kazuo
AU - Hall-Spencer, Jason M.
AU - Xu, Dong
AU - Zhang, Xiaowen
AU - Han, Wentao
AU - McMinn, Andrew
AU - Ye, Naihao
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Motility plays a critical role in algal survival and reproduction, with implications for aquatic ecosystem stability. However, the effect of elevated CO2 on marine, brackish and freshwater algal motility is unclear. Here we show, using laboratory microscale and field mesoscale experiments, that three typical phytoplankton species had decreased motility with increased CO2. Polar marine Microglena sp., euryhaline Dunaliella salina and freshwater Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were grown under different CO2 concentrations for 5 years. Long-term acclimated Microglena sp. showed substantially decreased photo-responses in all treatments, with a photophobic reaction affecting intracellular calcium concentration. Genes regulating flagellar movement were significantly downregulated (P < 0.05), alongside a significant increase in gene expression for flagellar shedding (P < 0.05). D. salina and C. reinhardtii showed similar results, suggesting that motility changes are common across flagellated species. As the flagella structure and bending mechanism are conserved from unicellular organisms to vertebrates, these results suggest that increasing surface water CO2 concentrations may affect flagellated cells from algae to fish.
AB - Motility plays a critical role in algal survival and reproduction, with implications for aquatic ecosystem stability. However, the effect of elevated CO2 on marine, brackish and freshwater algal motility is unclear. Here we show, using laboratory microscale and field mesoscale experiments, that three typical phytoplankton species had decreased motility with increased CO2. Polar marine Microglena sp., euryhaline Dunaliella salina and freshwater Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were grown under different CO2 concentrations for 5 years. Long-term acclimated Microglena sp. showed substantially decreased photo-responses in all treatments, with a photophobic reaction affecting intracellular calcium concentration. Genes regulating flagellar movement were significantly downregulated (P < 0.05), alongside a significant increase in gene expression for flagellar shedding (P < 0.05). D. salina and C. reinhardtii showed similar results, suggesting that motility changes are common across flagellated species. As the flagella structure and bending mechanism are conserved from unicellular organisms to vertebrates, these results suggest that increasing surface water CO2 concentrations may affect flagellated cells from algae to fish.
KW - behavioural ecology
KW - climate-change ecology
KW - marine biology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085876059&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41558-020-0776-2
DO - 10.1038/s41558-020-0776-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85085876059
VL - 10
SP - 561
EP - 567
JO - Nature Climate Change
JF - Nature Climate Change
SN - 1758-678X
IS - 6
ER -