ArticleMicrobial ecology2024
The Photoprotective Behavior of a Motile Benthic Diatom as Elucidated from the Interplay Between Cell Motility and Physiological Responses to a Light Microgradient Using a Novel Experimental Setup.
Article in Microbial ecology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dynamic switching of cell-substrate contact sites allows gliding diatoms to modulate the curvature of their paths.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Algal optics.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Reactive oxygen species trigger downward vertical migration in diatom microphytobenthic biofilms as a strategy to cope with oxidative stress.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Far-red light regulates phototactic behavior of benthic pennate epipelic diatoms under low irradiance.Photosynthesis research · 2026Article
- Light induced transthylakoidal proton gradient is a key signal driving the downward migration of motile diatoms in sediments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Functional morphology of gliding motility in benthic diatoms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Diversity, functional traits and assembly processes of diatom community in the aquatic-terrestrial ecotone: a case study of Danjiangkou Reservoir, China.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that benthic motile pennate diatoms use phototaxis to optimize photosynthesis and minimize photoinhibitory damage by adjusting their position within vertical light gradients in coastal benthic sediments. However, experimental evidence to test this hypothesis remains inconclusive, mainly due to methodological difficulties in studying cell behavior and photosynthesis over realistic spatial microscale gradients of irradiance and cell position. In this study, a novel experimental approach was developed and used to test the hypothesis of photosynthesis optimization through motility, based on the combination of single-cell in vivo chlorophyll fluorometry and microfluidic chips. The approach allows the concurrent study of behavior and photosynthetic activity of individual cells of the epipelic diatom species Craspedostauros britannicus exposed to a light microgradient of realistic dimensions, simulating the irradiance and distance scales of light microgradients in benthic sediments. Following exposure to light, (i) cells explored their light environment before initiating light-directed motility; (ii) cells used motility to lower their light dose, when exposed to the highest light intensities; and (iii) motility was combined with reversible non-photochemical quenching, to allow cells to avoid photoinhibition. The results of this proof-of-concept study not only strongly support the photoprotective nature of photobehavior in the studied species but also revealed considerable variability in how individual cells reacted to a light microgradient. The experimental setup can be readily applied to study motility and photosynthetic light responses of other diatom species or natural assemblages, as well as other photoautotrophic motile microorganisms, broadening the toolset for experimental microbial ecology research.
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