Role of Different Carbon Sources for Growth, Production and Community Composition of Bacterioplankton

It has been suggested that growth, production and community structure of bacterioplankton are dependent on resource availability. However, previous studies have only investigated the effect of either organic substrate mixtures or a few single organic substrates on the bacterioplankton community. The aims of this study were to investigate the impact of five different relevant carbon sources on the bacterioplankton community. This impact was evaluated comparing treatments on samples taken from Skagerrak and the Baltic Sea, in whole seawater cultures. Analysis of bacterial abundance, bacterial production (as leucine incorporation), bacterioplankton DNA community structure and colony-forming bacteria growing on agar plates were evaluated. Differences between carbon sources in terms of bacterial numbers were relatively small, with strong growth responses for L-amino acids, glucose, acetate and pyruvate with the only exception of glycolate where growth was lower. Bacterial production, on the other hand, presented marked differences, different patterns for each carbon source, especially in the Baltic Seawater. Furthermore, differences in colony size and number of colony forming bacteria in the different treatments were important. The analysis of DNA community from each experiment, by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA, allowed a visualization of the microbial community structure. Sequencing of the stronger bands on the gel revealed the identity of the dominant bacterial species. In terms of bacterioplankton community structure, differences between carbon sources and between environments were important. One unknown species belonging to gamma-proteobacteria was both unique and dominant for glucose treatment in the Baltic experiment. Another gamma-proteobacteria , a Vibrio was found to specialize in glucose in the Skagerrak experiment. One uncultured bacterium belonging to a alpha-proteobacteria, both unique and dominant was found in glycolate, also this in Skagerrak, another uncultured alpha-proteobacteria was clearly dominant for glucose treatment in Skagerrak. Some bands were also present in most treatments, e.g. uncultured species belonging to bacteroidetes in Skagerrak and beta-proteobacteria in Baltic, suggesting that those species are not specialized in consuming a single carbon source. As a conclusion different carbon sources clearly had an individual but important role for bacterioplankton properties. The properties also showed to be dependent on the environment. Nr:6355