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Diversity of Marine Phototorophs

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Springer Handbook of Marine Biotechnology

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

Abstract

Phototrophs transform the energy of solar irradiation into chemical-bond energy in organic substances. Those organic substances provide biological energy not only for the activities of life on Earth, but also the formation and maintenance of regional and/or global ecosystems. They also provide biotechnological resources for materials, energy, and so on. Since their energy transformation is the starting point of the energy flow in the marine ecosystem, the understanding of phototrophs is important not only for the consideration of the homeostasis of the marine environment, but also for the development of new marine biotechnologies. Traditionally, diatoms and flagellates had been understood to be the major primary producers in the ocean. However, the developments of technologies for phytoplankton research within the past three decades revealed a diversity of phototrophs serving as primary producers and contributing to the transformation of light-energy into the chemical energy. The contribution by those diverse phototrophs to the energy flow in the ocean seemed much larger than that by diatoms and flagellates, which indicated the necessity of reconsidering energy flow or primary production. In this paper, the author discusses the diversity of planktonic phototrophs that serve as the primary producers (the starting point of the energy flow in the marine environments) based on research results in chronological order.

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Abbreviations

19HF:

19 ′ -hexanoyloxy-fucoxanthin

AAPB:

aerobic anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria

ATP:

adenosine triphosphate

AnAPB:

anaerobic anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria

BChl:

bacteriochlorophyll

DNA:

deoxyribonucleic acid

DVChl:

divinyl-chlorophyll

HPLC:

high-performance liquid chromatography

PAR:

photosynthetically active radiation

PR:

proteorhodopsin

RuBisCo:

ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase

TCA:

tricarboxylic acid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida-nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku, 606-8501, Kyoto, Japan

    Hideaki Miyashita Prof.

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  1. Hideaki Miyashita Prof.
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Correspondence to Hideaki Miyashita Prof. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine-Bio. Convergence Science Specialized Graduate School Science & Technology Convergence Marine Bioprocess Research Center, Pukyong National University, Yongdang Campus, 365, Sinseon-ro, Nam-gu, 608-739, Busan, Korea

    Se-Kwon Kim Prof.

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Miyashita, H. (2015). Diversity of Marine Phototorophs. In: Kim, SK. (eds) Springer Handbook of Marine Biotechnology. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-53971-8_3

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