Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36518172›Full record

ArticleCurrent research in microbial sciences2022

Saturating relationship between phytoplankton growth rate and nutrient concentration explained by macromolecular allocation.

Jongsun Kim, Gabrielle Armin, Keisuke Inomura

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current research in microbial sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jongsun KimSchool of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX, USA.
Gabrielle ArminGraduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA.
Keisuke InomuraGraduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Phytoplankton account for about a half of photosynthesis in the world, making them a key player in the ecological and biogeochemical systems. One of the key traits of phytoplankton is their growth rate because it indicates their productivity and affects their competitive capability. The saturating relationship between phytoplankton growth rate and environmental nutrient concentration has been widely observed yet the mechanisms behind the relationship remain elusive. Here we use a mechanistic model and metadata of phytoplankton to show that the saturating relationship between growth rate and nitrate concentration can be interpreted by intracellular macromolecular allocation. At low nitrate levels, the diffusive nitrate transport linearly increases with the nitrate concentration, while the internal nitrogen requirement increases with the growth rate, leading to a non-linear increase in the growth rate with nitrate. This increased nitrogen requirement is due to the increased allocation to biosynthetic and photosynthetic molecules. The allocation to these molecules reaches a maximum at high nitrate concentration and the growth rate ceases to increase despite high nitrate availability due to carbon limitation. The produced growth rate and nitrate relationships are consistent with the data of phytoplankton across taxa. Our study provides a macromolecular interpretation of the widely observed growth-nutrient relationship and highlights that the key control of the phytoplankton growth exists within the cell.

Indexed as

CarbohydrateDNAGrowthLipidMacromolecular allocationMonod kineticsNutrientNutrient storagePhytoplanktonProteinRNA

Identifiers

PMID36518172
PMCPMC9742995

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Registered trials

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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.