ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Contribution of cyanobacterial alkane production to the ocean hydrocarbon cycle.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 202 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ecosystem-scale genomic and metatranscriptomic evidence for a coupled, active short-term hydrocarbon cycle in the marine photic ocean.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Brown algae produce hydrocarbons via fatty acid photodecarboxylase-dependent and fatty acid photodecarboxylase-independent pathways.Plant physiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Accumulation of recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon during cyanobacterial blooms in Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu: insights into the microbial carbon pump.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Photodegradation Driven by Visible Light Exceeds Biodegradation across a Range of Environmental Conditions during the Initial Hours after an Oil Spill.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Biosurfactant biosynthesis by Alcanivorax borkumensis and its role in oil biodegradation.Nature chemical biology · 2025Article
- Comparative Transcriptomics Reveals Distinct Adaptation Mechanisms for Degradation ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Generalization of Classification of AlkB Family Alkane Monooxygenases fromInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Hydrocarbon metabolism and petroleum seepage as ecological and evolutionary drivers for Cycloclasticus.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Model cyanobacterial consortia reveal a consistent core microbiome independent of inoculation source or cyanobacterial host species.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Shotgun metagenomics reveals the flexibility and diversity of Arctic marine microbiomes.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Maintaining ocean ecosystem health with hydrocarbonoclastic microbes.ISME communications · 2025Review
- Metagenomic survey reveals hydrocarbon biodegradation potential of Canadian high Arctic beaches.Environmental microbiome · 2024Article
- Absence of alka(e)nes triggers profound remodeling of glycerolipid and carotenoid composition in cyanobacteria membrane.Plant physiology · 2024Article
- High Arctic seawater and coastal soil microbiome co-occurrence and composition structure and their potential hydrocarbon biodegradation.ISME communications · 2024Article
- Gut microbiota composition of the isopod Ligia in South Korea exposed to expanded polystyrene pollution.PloS one · 2024Article
- Structure and Function of Alkane Monooxygenase (AlkB).Accounts of chemical research · 2023Review
- Innovative strategy for the conservation of a millennial mausoleum from biodeterioration through artificial light management.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2023Article
- Genomic insights into cryptic cycles of microbial hydrocarbon production and degradation in contiguous freshwater and marine microbiomes.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Structure and mechanism of the alkane-oxidizing enzyme AlkB.Nature communications · 2023Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hydrocarbons are ubiquitous in the ocean, where alkanes such as pentadecane and heptadecane can be found even in waters minimally polluted with crude oil. Populations of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, which are responsible for the turnover of these compounds, are also found throughout marine systems, including in unpolluted waters. These observations suggest the existence of an unknown and widespread source of hydrocarbons in the oceans. Here, we report that strains of the two most abundant marine cyanobacteria, Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, produce and accumulate hydrocarbons, predominantly C15 and C17 alkanes, between 0.022 and 0.368% of dry cell weight. Based on global population sizes and turnover rates, we estimate that these species have the capacity to produce 2-540 pg alkanes per mL per day, which translates into a global ocean yield of ∼ 308-771 million tons of hydrocarbons annually. We also demonstrate that both obligate and facultative marine hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria can consume cyanobacterial alkanes, which likely prevents these hydrocarbons from accumulating in the environment. Our findings implicate cyanobacteria and hydrocarbon degraders as key players in a notable internal hydrocarbon cycle within the upper ocean, where alkanes are continually produced and subsequently consumed within days. Furthermore we show that cyanobacterial alkane production is likely sufficient to sustain populations of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, whose abundances can rapidly expand upon localized release of crude oil from natural seepage and human activities.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.