Heterogeneity of cyanobacterial gas-vesicle volume and metabolic activity

© Oxford University Press 2000The literature suggests that relative gas-vesicle volume and metabolic activity differ between individuals within natural populations of cyanobacteria. We demonstrate, using flow cytometry and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) conversion rates, that individual relative gas-vesicle volumes differed by 6.7- and 4.6-fold, and individual cell photosynthetic rates ranged from 0.026 to 0.127 and from 0.075 to 2.415 fmol O2 cell–1 min–1 within phosphorus-starved and phosphorus-replete Microcystis aeruginosa populations, respectively. The observation that there is considerable heterogeneity in gas-vesicle volume and cell metabolic activity in cultured populations suggests that this could also contribute to heterogeneity in buoyancy of field populations.Justin D. Brookes, George G. Ganf and Roderick L. Olive