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EQUALLY ENORMOUS OCEANIC VIRAL BIOMASS. "Viruses are the most abundant ‘life forms’ in aquatic systems, and their number probably exceeds 10(29) in the ocean... the viral string-of-pearls would be 400 000 light years long. In comparison, the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is only 25,000 light years... has prompted research showing that they play a significant role in the transfer of matter and energy in aquatic microbial food webs."" " http://lnkd.in/dxsSymN View in LinkedIn

ENORMOUS BIOMASS OF PHYTOPLANKTON inevitably is the foundation of not just the well-known ecosystem of bigger creatures like krill eating the phytoplankton, and bigger fish eating the krill, but of the viruses that also exploit this huge amount of rich food. The virus strategy can be subtle and symbiotic, or fatal and lytic, and have great control of phytoplankton blooms. View in LinkedIn

MARINE VIRUSES THE MOST PLENTIFUL in seawater, at 10 billion per liter. Up to half the flux of matter and energy in marine food webs pass through these under-appreciated creatures. Pseudolysogeny is a mechanism where viral genetic material may remain in the host for several generations and is active in marine phytoplankton-viral relationships. " " http://lnkd.in/dAmGPbZ View in LinkedIn

PAN-GENOMES OF PHYTOPLANKTON. "Comparisons across strains demonstrate that E. huxleyi, which has long been considered a single species, harbours extensive genome variability reflected in different metabolic repertoires. Genome variability within this species complex seems to underpin its capacity both to thrive in habitats ranging from the equator to the subarctic and to form large-scale episodic blooms under a wide variety of environmental conditions."" " http://lnkd.in/d3snKGx View in LinkedIn

GENOMIC ADAPTABILITY OF PHYTOPLANKTON. "This considerable genetic diversity will hopefully allow the alga to cope with the current changes in the oceans, such as rising water temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide levels."" " https://www.helmholtz.de/en/artikel/genome-analysis-adaptability-of-haptophyte-uncovered-1676/ View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON'S PAN-GENOME. Scientists have "deciphered the genome of Emiliania huxleyi and, in doing so, have found an explanation for the unicellular organism's enormous adaptability and distribution. It possesses a so-called pan-genome. This means that this species shares a given, comparatively small basic set of genes, which is augmented by different genes depending on their habitat." Previously this was thought to only occur in bacteria and explains their remarkable adaptive capacity. " " https://www.helmholtz.de/en/artikel/genome-analysis-adaptability-of-haptophyte-uncovered-1676/ View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON GENOME ONLY SEQUENCED IN 2013. A multinational 7 year effort yielded the genomic sequence of one important phytoplankton, in 2013. "A pan-genome has previously been seen only in some marine bacteria, organisms lacking enclosed nuclei. Ehux is a eukaryote—an organism with an enclosed nucleus, like all plants and animals. This is the first description of a pan-genome in eukaryotic marine algae."" " http://lnkd.in/dtBTw89 View in LinkedIn

GENOMIC INFORMATION IS KEY. "If we know the genome, we can find out a lot about what the organism is capable of and how it reacts to changes, for example, in the course of climate change", says algae researcher Klaus Valentin from the AWI. Due to its genetic flexibility, the microalga can adapt to almost all marine conditions and can survive in almost all the Earth's oceans."" " https://www.helmholtz.de/en/artikel/genome-analysis-adaptability-of-haptophyte-uncovered-1676/ View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON VIRUSES ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD and not part of the phytoplankton databanks of abundance. "Although the importance of viruses is presently recognized, it is apparent that many aspects of viral-mediated mortality of phytoplankton are still poorly understood. It is imperative that future research addresses the mechanisms that regulate virus infectivity, host resistance, genotype richness, abundance, and the fate of viruses over time and space."" " http://lnkd.in/dYKVHkM View in LinkedIn

SCIENTISTS HOPFUL ABOUT ADAPTIVE CAPACITY of phytoplankton in face of environmental change. "We suggest that contemporary evolution could help to maintain the functionality of microbial processes at the base of marine food webs in the face of global change." Worth remembering that marine phytoplankton started life in caustic ocean habitats and evolved dramatically over millennia. But is that enough today?" " http://lnkd.in/dGEF2dh View in LinkedIn