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Decreased motility of flagellated microalgae long-term acclimated to CO2-induced acidified waters

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 14:44 authored by Wang, Y, Fan, X, Gao, G, Beardall, J, Inaba, K, Hall-Spencer, JM, Xu, D, Zhang, X, Han, W, Andrew McMinnAndrew McMinn, Ye, N

Motility plays a critical role in algal survival and reproduction, with implications for aquatic ecosystem stability. However, the effect of elevated CO2 on marine, brackish and freshwater algal motility is unclear. Here we show, using laboratory microscale and field mesoscale experiments, that three typical phytoplankton species had decreased motility with increased CO2. Polar marine Microglena sp., euryhaline Dunaliella salina and freshwater Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were grown under different CO2 concentrations for 5 years. Long-term acclimated Microglena sp. showed substantially decreased photo-responses in all treatments, with a photophobic reaction affecting intracellular calcium concentration. Genes regulating flagellar movement were significantly downregulated (P < 0.05), alongside a significant increase in gene expression for flagellar shedding (P < 0.05). D. salina and C. reinhardtii showed similar results, suggesting that motility changes are common across flagellated species. As the flagella structure and bending mechanism are conserved from unicellular organisms to vertebrates, these results suggest that increasing surface water CO2 concentrations may affect flagellated cells from algae to fish.

History

Publication title

Nature Climate Change

Volume

10

Issue

6

Pagination

561-567

ISSN

1758-678X

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

Copyright 2020 The Authors, under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Coastal or estuarine biodiversity

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