ArticleMolecular ecology resources2023
A robust approach to estimate relative phytoplankton cell abundances from metagenomes.
Article in Molecular ecology resources, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Past subarctic marine food web shifts recovered by sedaDNA and network analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Spatial Distributions of Active Pico- and Nano-Haptophytes (Eukaryota, Hacrobia) in the Tropical and Subtropical Western Pacific Ocean.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- ChloroScan: Recovering Plastid Genome Bins From Metagenomic Data.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Differential aggregation properties among Baltic Sea picocyanobacterial strains impact their export.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- The genome of Pleurosigma provides insights into the evolutionary adaptations of pelagic diatoms.DNA research : an international journal for rapid publication of reports on genes and genomes · 2026Article
- Niche divergence suggests ecophysiological differences between cryptic phytoplankton species.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Identification of a deep-branching lineage of algae using environmental plastid genomes.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Tropics to the Poles: A Snapshot of Coastal Eukaryotic Marine Microalgal Diversity Across Five Ecoregions.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- The chitin raft hypothesis for the colonization of the open ocean by cyanobacteria.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Unraveling plankton adaptation in global oceans through the untargeted analysis of lipidomes.Science advances · 2025Article
- Patterns and drivers of diatom diversity and abundance in the global ocean.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Metatranscriptomes-based sequence similarity networks uncover genetic signatures within parasitic freshwater microbial eukaryotes.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Do trophic strategies shape biogeography and environmental niches? Marine dinoflagellates as a case study.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Quantitative metagenomics for marine prokaryotes and photosynthetic eukaryotes.ISME communications · 2025Article
- From nets to networks: tools for deciphering phytoplankton metabolic interactions within communities and their global significance.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Differential association of key bacterial groups with diatoms and Phaeocystis spp. during spring blooms in the Southern Ocean.MicrobiologyOpen · 2024Article
- Prevalence and Preferred Niche of Small Eukaryotes with Mixotrophic Potentials in the Global Ocean.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Chitin utilization by marine picocyanobacteria and the evolution of a planktonic lifestyle.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Convergent evolution and horizontal gene transfer in Arctic Ocean microalgae.Life science alliance · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 3 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Phytoplankton account for >45% of global primary production, and have an enormous impact on aquatic food webs and on the entire Earth System. Their members are found among prokaryotes (cyanobacteria) and multiple eukaryotic lineages containing chloroplasts. Genetic surveys of phytoplankton communities generally consist of PCR amplification of bacterial (16S), nuclear (18S) and/or chloroplastic (16S) rRNA marker genes from DNA extracted from environmental samples. However, our appreciation of phytoplankton abundance or biomass is limited by PCR-amplification biases, rRNA gene copy number variations across taxa, and the fact that rRNA genes do not provide insights into metabolic traits such as photosynthesis. Here, we targeted the photosynthetic gene psbO from metagenomes to circumvent these limitations: the method is PCR-free, and the gene is universally and exclusively present in photosynthetic prokaryotes and eukaryotes, mainly in one copy per genome. We applied and validated this new strategy with the size-fractionated marine samples collected by Tara Oceans, and showed improved correlations with flow cytometry and microscopy than when based on rRNA genes. Furthermore, we revealed unexpected features of the ecology of these ecosystems, such as the high abundance of picocyanobacterial aggregates and symbionts in the ocean, and the decrease in relative abundance of phototrophs towards the larger size classes of marine dinoflagellates. To facilitate the incorporation of psbO in molecular-based surveys, we compiled a curated database of >18,000 unique sequences. Overall, psbO appears to be a promising new gene marker for molecular-based evaluations of entire phytoplankton communities.
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