Responses of Diverse Marine Heterotrophic Bacteria to Changing Copper Availability.

Copper (Cu) is essential to a variety of metabolic pathways in marine prokaryotes, including cellular respiration and degradation of complex organic substrates. Yet, its nutritional role in marine heterotrophic bacteria remains poorly understood. Our goal was to investigate the effects of Cu availability on growth and metabolism of diverse classes of marine heterotrophic bacteria (α -, Ɣ- proteobacteria and Flavobacteriia), including a number of strains isolated from the Northeast Pacific Ocean (Pseudoalteromonas sp., Alteromondales; and Dokdonia sp., Flavobacteriales) and a model bacterium from the Roseobacter clade Ruegeria pomeroyi (ATCC 700808). Our preliminary results indicate that Pseudoalteromonas sp may have a low metabolic requirement for Cu as their growth rates were only slightly reduced under Cu deficiency (10-25% µmax). In contrast, the growth of the flavobacterium Dokdonia sp is severely limited by low Cu levels (up to 90% µmax) and follows a Monod-type kinetics from 0 - 50nM Cu in EDTA-buffered media. Metabolic responses to changing Cu availability include an increase in intracellular sulfur content with decreasing Cu concentrations, while maintaining constant C:N stoichiometry. Bacterial growth efficiency (BGE, %) was directly correlated with Cu suggesting that carbon utilization in this organism is regulated by Cu availability. Our results indicate that Cu affects growth and metabolism of marine heterotrophic bacteria, and highlight the physiological differences in copper requirements among different bacterial groups.