A new study shows that carbon-capturing phytoplankton colonized the ocean by rafting on particles of chitin. MIT researchers found that Prochlorococcus, a vital phytoplankton, likely used chitin from ancient exoskeletons as rafts to venture into open waters, evolving to absorb nearly as much CO2
New research suggests the Prochlorococcus microbe’s ancient coastal ancestors colonized the ocean by rafting out on chitin particles. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT
Throughout the ocean, billions upon billions of plant-like microbes make up an invisible floating forest. As they drift, the tiny organisms use sunlight to suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Collectively, these photosynthesizing plankton, or phytoplankton, absorb almost as much CO2 as the world’s terrestrial forests. A measurable fraction of their carbon-capturing muscle comes from— an emerald-tinged free-floater that is the most abundant phytoplankton in the oceans today.
Thus fortified, generations of microbes may have then had the opportunity to evolve new abilities to adapt to the open ocean. Eventually, they would have evolved to a point where they could jump ship and survive as the free-floating ocean dwellers that live today.and other photosynthetic organisms had not colonized the ocean, we would be looking at a very different planet,” says Rogier Braakman, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences .
Researchers in Chisholm’s lab were looking for signs of mixotrophy when they stumbled on a common gene in several modern strains of. The gene encoded the ability to break down chitin, a carbon-rich material that comes from the sloughed-off shells of arthropods, such as insects and crustaceans.
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