Strong chemotaxis by marine bacteria towards polysaccharides is enhanced by the abundant organosulfur compound DMSP

Estelle E. Clerc, Jean Baptiste Raina*, Johannes M. Keegstra, Zachary Landry, Sammy Pontrelli, Uria Alcolombri, Bennett S. Lambert, Valerio Anelli, Flora Vincent, Marta Masdeu-Navarro, Andreas Sichert, Frédéric De Schaetzen, Uwe Sauer, Rafel Simó, Jan Hendrik Hehemann, Assaf Vardi, Justin R. Seymour, Roman Stocker*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ability of marine bacteria to direct their movement in response to chemical gradients influences inter-species interactions, nutrient turnover, and ecosystem productivity. While many bacteria are chemotactic towards small metabolites, marine organic matter is predominantly composed of large molecules and polymers. Yet, the signalling role of these large molecules is largely unknown. Using in situ and laboratory-based chemotaxis assays, we show that marine bacteria are strongly attracted to the abundant algal polysaccharides laminarin and alginate. Unexpectedly, these polysaccharides elicited stronger chemoattraction than their oligo- and monosaccharide constituents. Furthermore, chemotaxis towards laminarin was strongly enhanced by dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), another ubiquitous algal-derived metabolite. Our results indicate that DMSP acts as a methyl donor for marine bacteria, increasing their gradient detection capacity and facilitating their access to polysaccharide patches. We demonstrate that marine bacteria are capable of strong chemotaxis towards large soluble polysaccharides and uncover a new ecological role for DMSP in enhancing this attraction. These navigation behaviours may contribute to the rapid turnover of polymers in the ocean, with important consequences for marine carbon cycling.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8080
JournalNature Communications
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2023

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© 2023, The Author(s).

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