The role of diatom nanostructures in biasing diffusion to improve uptake in a patchy nutrient environment
- Mitchell, James Gordon
- Seuront, Laurent
- Doubell, Mark John
- Losic, Dusan
- Voelcker, Nicolas Hans
- Seymour, Justin
- Lal, Ratnesh
DOIAbstract
Background Diatoms are important single-celled autotrophs that dominate most lit aquatic environments and are distinguished by surficial frustules with intricate designs of unknown function. Principal Findings We show that some frustule designs constrain diffusion to positively alter nutrient uptake. In nutrient gradients of 4 to 160 times over <5 cm, the screened-chambered morphology of Coscincodiscus sp. biases the nutrient diffusion towards the cell by at least 3.8 times the diffusion to the seawater. In contrast, the open-chambers of Thalassiosira eccentrica produce at least a 1.3 times diffusion advantage to the membrane over Coscincodiscus sp. when nutrients are homogeneous. Significance Diffusion constraint explains the success of pa...