Bacteria-mediated aggregation of the marine phytoplankton Thalassiosira weissflogii and Nannochloropsis oceanica

The ecological relationships between heterotrophic bacteria and marine phytoplankton are complex and multifaceted, and in some instances include the bacteria-mediated aggregation of phytoplankton cells. It is not known to what extent bacteria stimulate aggregation of marine phytoplankton, the variability in aggregation capacity across different bacterial taxa or the potential role of algogenic exopolymers in this process. Here we screened twenty bacterial isolates, spanning nine orders, for their capacity to stimulate aggregation of two marine phytoplankters, Thalassiosira weissflogii and Nannochloropsis oceanica . In addition to phytoplankton aggregation efficiency, the production of exopolymers was measured using Alcian Blue. Bacterial isolates from the Rhodobacterales , Flavobacteriales and Sphingomonadales orders stimulated the highest levels of cell aggregation in phytoplankton cultures. When co-cultured with bacteria, exopolymer concentration accounted for 34.1% of the aggregation observed in T. weissflogii and 27.7% of the aggregation observed in N. oceanica . Bacteria-mediated aggregation of phytoplankton has potentially important implications for mediating vertical carbon flux in the ocean and in extracting phytoplankton cells from suspension for biotechnological applications.