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According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology, microalgae, which play an important role in the marine food chain and carbon dioxide capture, have developed a novel technique to cope with global warming. As climate change limits the availability of nutrients in the water, these marine microalgae activate rhodopsin, a protein linked to the low-light vision protein in the human eye. Rhodopsin promotes the growth of microalgae by using sunlight instead of typical chlorophyll when nutrients are scarce.
Global Warming's Effect on Ocean Nutrients
As global warming warms the ocean's surface waters, less mixing occurs with nutrient-rich deeper waters. This causes nutrient scarcity in the surface layers, which affects primary producers such as microalgae.
Reduced nutrient availability results in lower food production and carbon dioxide collection by microalgae, analogous to decreasing crop yields on land when iron- and nitrogen-rich fertilizers are scarce.
The Function of Rhodopsins
In the lab, researchers cloned rhodopsins and confirmed that they collect light to make energy (adenosine triphosphate, or ATP), the energy currency of all cells.
Rhodopsin transcript were discovered to be higher in low latitudes, where ocean waters mix less and nutrient concentrations are lower.
Using Sunlight to Grow
Microalgae require sunlight to create food and remove CO2 from the environment, but they also require a substantial amount of iron. Around 35% of the ocean's surface lacks enough iron to enable algal development.
This is especially true in the iron-limited Southern Ocean, which is home to varied marine organisms such as krill, fish, penguins, and whales, all of which rely on primary producers such as microalgae.
Potential Applications and Advantages
The findings of the study may aid in mitigating the negative effects of changing climatic circumstances, such as ocean warming and decreased crop output.
This technique could potentially be used to boost the activity of microbes that do not require light, allowing for biotechnological applications such as insulin manufacturing, antibiotic research, enzyme manufacture, antiviral drugs, and biofuel production.
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