Growth and nitrogen uptake kinetics in cultured Prorocentrum donghaiense

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 7;9(4):e94030. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094030. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

We compared growth kinetics of Prorocentrum donghaiense cultures on different nitrogen (N) compounds including nitrate (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), urea, glutamic acid (glu), dialanine (diala) and cyanate. P. donghaiense exhibited standard Monod-type growth kinetics over a range of N concentraions (0.5-500 μmol N L-1 for NO3- and NH4+, 0.5-50 μmol N L-1 for urea, 0.5-100 μmol N L-1 for glu and cyanate, and 0.5-200 μmol N L-1 for diala) for all of the N compounds tested. Cultures grown on glu and urea had the highest maximum growth rates (μm, 1.51±0.06 d-1 and 1.50±0.05 d-1, respectively). However, cultures grown on cyanate, NO3-, and NH4+ had lower half saturation constants (Kμ, 0.28-0.51 μmol N L-1). N uptake kinetics were measured in NO3--deplete and -replete batch cultures of P. donghaiense. In NO3--deplete batch cultures, P. donghaiense exhibited Michaelis-Menten type uptake kinetics for NO3-, NH4+, urea and algal amino acids; uptake was saturated at or below 50 μmol N L-1. In NO3--replete batch cultures, NH4+, urea, and algal amino acid uptake kinetics were similar to those measured in NO3--deplete batch cultures. Together, our results demonstrate that P. donghaiense can grow well on a variety of N sources, and exhibits similar uptake kinetics under both nutrient replete and deplete conditions. This may be an important factor facilitating their growth during bloom initiation and development in N-enriched estuaries where many algae compete for bioavailable N and the nutrient environment changes as a result of algal growth.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Alveolata / growth & development*
  • Alveolata / metabolism
  • Harmful Algal Bloom / physiology*
  • Nitrogen / metabolism*

Substances

  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council to Zhangxi Hu. In addition, this work was supported by NOAA and NSF grants to MRM, and Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Numbers 40776078, 40876074, 41176104). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.