{"doi":"10.1111/gbi.12411","title":"A micrometer‐scale snapshot on phototroph spatial distributions: mass spectrometry imaging of microbial mats in Octopus Spring, Yellowstone National Park","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Microbial mats from alkaline hot springs in the Yellowstone National Park are ideal natural laboratories to study photosynthetic life under extreme conditions, as well as the nuanced interactions of oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs. They represent distinctive examples of chlorophototroph (i.e., chlorophyll or bacteriochlorophyll‐based phototroph) diversity, and several novel phototrophs have been first described in these systems, all confined in space, coexisting and competing for niches defined by parameters such as light, oxygen, or temperature. In a novel approach, we employed mass spectrometry imaging of chloropigments, quinones, and intact polar lipids (IPLs) to describe the spatial distribution of different groups of chlorophototrophs along the ~ 1 cm thick microbial mat at 75 µm resolution and in the top ~ 1.5 mm green part of the mat at 25 µm resolution. We observed a fine‐tuned sequence of oxygenic and anoxygenic chlorophototrophs with distinctive biomarker signatures populating the microbial mat. The transition of oxic to anoxic conditions is characterized by an accumulation of biomarkers indicative of anoxygenic phototrophy. It is also identified as a clear boundary for different species and ecotypes, which adjust their biomarker inventory, particularly the interplay of quinones and chloropigments, to prevailing conditions. Colocalization of the different biomarker groups led to the identification of characteristic IPL signatures and indicates that glycosidic diether glycerolipids are diagnostic for anoxygenic phototrophs in this mat system. The zoom‐in into the upper green part further reveals how oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs share this microenvironment and informs on subtle, microscale adjustments in lipid composition of<jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic>spp.</jats:p>","journal":"Geobiology","year":2020,"id":647761,"datarank":0.867202747825011,"base_score":3.4011973816621555,"endowment":3.4011973816621555,"self_citation_contribution":0.5101796072493234,"citation_network_contribution":0.3570231405756876,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5101796072493234,"citer_contribution":0.3570231405756876,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":29,"citer_count":22,"citers_with_citation_signal":20,"citers_with_endowment":20,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1687819,"name":"Niroshan Gajendra","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1687821,"name":"Florence Schubotz","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1687823,"name":"Emily D. 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They represent distinctive examples of chlorophototroph (i.e., chlorophyll or bacteriochlorophyll‐based phototroph) diversity, and several novel phototrophs have been first described in these systems, all confined in space, coexisting and competing for niches defined by parameters such as light, oxygen, or temperature. In a novel approach, we employed mass spectrometry imaging of chloropigments, quinones, and intact polar lipids (IPLs) to describe the spatial distribution of different groups of chlorophototrophs along the ~ 1 cm thick microbial mat at 75 µm resolution and in the top ~ 1.5 mm green part of the mat at 25 µm resolution. We observed a fine‐tuned sequence of oxygenic and anoxygenic chlorophototrophs with distinctive biomarker signatures populating the microbial mat. The transition of oxic to anoxic conditions is characterized by an accumulation of biomarkers indicative of anoxygenic phototrophy. It is also identified as a clear boundary for different species and ecotypes, which adjust their biomarker inventory, particularly the interplay of quinones and chloropigments, to prevailing conditions. Colocalization of the different biomarker groups led to the identification of characteristic IPL signatures and indicates that glycosidic diether glycerolipids are diagnostic for anoxygenic phototrophs in this mat system. The zoom‐in into the upper green part further reveals how oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs share this microenvironment and informs on subtle, microscale adjustments in lipid composition of<jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic>spp.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.4011973816621555,"endowment":3.4011973816621555,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"32936514","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W3087292099","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"H2020 European Research Council","grant_id":"670115 ZOOMECULAR","title":null},{"funder_name":"European Commission","grant_id":"670115","title":"Read the fine print: Zooming into paleoenvironmental and biogeochemical processes through molecular imaging of biomarker distributions in sediments"}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":2.2727,"citation_percentile":0.87576506,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2021,"count":2},{"year":2022,"count":8},{"year":2023,"count":6},{"year":2024,"count":6},{"year":2025,"count":3},{"year":2026,"count":4}],"oa_status":"hybrid","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32936514","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133842","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133842.2","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/443797","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000443797","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000443797","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":""},{"url":"https://sonar.ch/global/documents/209552","host_type":""},{"url":"https://zenodo.org/records/4120929","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12411","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/GBI.12411","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology","Marine and coastal ecosystems","Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies","0301 basic medicine","03 medical and health sciences","0303 health sciences"],"mesh_terms":["Parks, Recreational","Animals","Mass Spectrometry","Hot Springs","Octopodiformes","Phototrophic Processes"],"keywords":["Anoxygenic photosynthesis","Phototroph","Microbial mat","Hopanoids","Ecology","Biology","Botany","Cyanobacteria","Photosynthesis","Paleontology","Synechococcus","Molecular Biomarker","Intact Polar Lipids","Roseiflexus","Maldi Ft-icr-ms","Parks, Recreational","Octopodiformes","Hot Springs","Mass Spectrometry","Synechococcus; Intact polar lipids; MALDI FT-ICR-MS; Microbial mat; Molecular biomarker; Synechococcus","Animals","MALDI","Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics","General Environmental Science","Phototrophic Processes","General Earth and Planetary Sciences","FT-ICR-MS"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":13,"sdg_label":"13. 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