Osnat Weissberg, Dikla Aharonovich, Zhen Wu, Michael J. Follows & Daniel Sher (2025), Models and co-culture experiments assess four mechanisms of phytoplankton bacteria interactions, Nature Microbiology, doi: 10.1038/s41564-025-02196-0Description:
Weissberg et al (2025) explores how heterotrophic bacteria affect marine phytoplankton, focusing on Prochlorococcus in co-culture with eight bacterial strains. Combining mathematical models and experiments, the authors examined four interaction mechanisms: overflow metabolism, mixotrophy, exoenzyme activity, and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. Results revealed two dominant modes: resource recycling, which enhances productivity and organic matter formation, and oxidative stress mitigation, which supports phytoplankton survival. Models reproduced most observed growth patterns, though complete inhibition suggested additional factors like allelopathy. The study underscores the importance of cell death and biomass recycling in shaping microbial ecology and global biogeochemical cycles.