Probing the bioavailability of organically bound iron: a case study in the Synechococcus-rich waters of the Gulf of Aqaba

Abstract

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 56:241-253 (2009) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01347 AME Special: 'Progress and perspectives in aquatic primary productivity: highlights of the GAP VIII workshop, Eilat, Israel, 2008' Probing the bioavailability of organically bound iron: a case study in the Synechococcus-rich waters of the Gulf of Aqaba Hagar Lis1,2,*, Yeala Shaked1,2 1Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, POB 469, Eilat 88103, Israel 2Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Earth Sciences, Edmond Safra campus – Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel *Email: hagarlis@gmail.com ABSTRACT: The bioavailability of organically chelated and ambient iron to phytoplankton in the Gulf of Aqaba was examined in 2 sets of grow-out incubations amended with major nutrients and increasing concentrations of the model organic ligand desferrioxamine B (DFB). Short-term uptake of pre-complexed 55FeDFB was then conducted with the DFB-incubated natural populations. Since incubation communities were dominated by Synechococcus spp., short-term FeDFB uptake experiments with Synechococcus WH8102 cultures complemented the field study. The role of extracellular reduction in FeDFB acquisition was studied in accordance with the Fe(II)s model (Shaked et al. 2005) by applying large excesses of DFB. Ambient iron was found adequate in meeting natural phytoplankton iron demands in incubations containing major nutrients. A gradually increasing iron-stress response was observed as DFB concentration increased and titrated out ambient iron. Nevertheless, both natural phytoplankton and Synechococcus WH8102 cultures were able to acquire DFB-bound iron. FeDFB uptake rates were inhibited by large excesses of DFB. This may indicate the operation of an extracellular reduction step in the acquisition of FeDFB by natural populations in the Gulf of Aqaba and Synechococcus WH8102. KEY WORDS: Iron acquisition · Extracellular reduction · Organic complexation · Desferrioxamine B (DFB) · Synechococcus · Marine cyanobacteria · Gulf of Aqaba Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Lis H, Shaked Y (2009) Probing the bioavailability of organically bound iron: a case study in the Synechococcus-rich waters of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aquat Microb Ecol 56:241-253. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01347Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 56, No. 2-3. Online publication date: September 03, 2009 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2009 Inter-Research.