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MARUM MPG Bridge Group Mar­ine Gly­cobi­o­logy

Group leader

MARUM MPG Bridge Group Marine Glycobiology

Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Room: 

2126

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-7360

Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann
Coscinodiscus wailesii
Coscinodiscus wailesii

Over­view

Algal poly­sac­char­ides are an im­port­ant com­pon­ent of the flux of car­bon rich or­ganic mat­ter from the sur­face ocean into its depth. Most mar­ine poly­sac­char­ides are syn­thes­ized at the sur­face by mi­croal­gae whose an­nual pro­duc­tion is on par with all plants on land even though they only ac­count for about 1-2% of the mar­ine bio­mass.

This com­pet­it­ive pro­duc­tion is caused by in­tense growth and short lifespans; mi­croal­gae live fast and die young (weeks) com­pared to ter­restrial plants (years). They pur­sue a boom and bust life style with rapid growth and ab­rupt pop­u­la­tion crashes whereby algal blooms can ap­pear and dis­ap­pear within weeks or even days. Dur­ing growth and upon death mi­croal­gae secrete co­pi­ous amounts of an­ionic poly­sac­char­ides. These are known to spon­tan­eously ag­greg­ate into particles, which can more rap­idly sink through the wa­ter column and in­ject car­bon into deeper wa­ters (the bio­lo­gical pump).

Bac­teria col­on­ize particles and use en­zymes to re­cycle poly­sac­char­ides lead­ing to in­tense bac­terial growth and particle dis­sol­u­tion. This way the in­ter­play between particle form­a­tion and its dis­sol­u­tion may reg­u­late the bio­lo­gical pump and dic­tate how much car­bon is stored in the oceans.

Des­pite the rel­ev­ance of this pro­cess the struc­tures of algal poly­sac­char­ides and their re­cyc­ling by mar­ine mi­crobes re­main a mys­tery. To shed light on this black box of the mar­ine car­bon cycle we study the func­tional evol­u­tion of the bac­terial en­zymatic ma­chines and how they pro­cess algal poly­sac­char­ides in the ocean

Please, click here to find out more about our re­search.

If you are in­ter­ested in the mem­bers of the MARUM MPG Bridge Group Mar­ine Gly­cobi­o­logy, please click here.

 

Re­cent news

Se­lec­ted pub­lic­a­tions

Vidal-Mel­gosa, S., Sich­ert, A., Fran­cis, T.B. et al. Di­atom fucan poly­sac­char­ide pre­cip­it­ates car­bon dur­ing algal blooms. Nat Commun 12, 1150 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21009-6

Sich­ert, A., Corz­ett, C.H., Schechter, M.S. et al. Ver­ruco­mic­ro­bia use hun­dreds of en­zymes to di­gest the algal poly­sac­char­ide fuc­oidan. Nat Microbiol 5, 1026–1039 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0720-2

Buck-Wiese, H., Fanuel, M., Liebeke, M. et al. Discrimination of β-1,4- and β-1,3-Linkages in Native Oligosaccharides via Charge Transfer Dissociation Mass Spectrometry. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 31 (6), 1249-1259 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.0c00087
 
Becker, S., Tebben, J., Coffinet, S. et al. Laminarin is a major molecule in the marine carbon cycle. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 117 (12), 6599-6607 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917001117
 
Reisky, L., Préchoux, A., Zühlke, MK. et al. A marine bacterial enzymatic cascade degrades the algal polysaccharide ulvan. Nat Chem Biol 15, 803–812 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-019-0311-9
 
Hehemann, JH., Reintjes, G., Klassen, L. et al. Single cell fluorescence imaging of glycan uptake by intestinal bacteria. ISME J 13, 1883–1889 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0406-z
 
Robb, C. S., Reisky, L., Bornscheuer, U. T., Hehemann, J.-H. Specificity and mechanism of carbohydrate demethylation by cytochrome P450 monooxygenases. Biochem J 475 (23), 3875–3886 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20180762
 
Mystkowska, A.A., Robb, C., Vidal‐Melgosa, S., Vanni, C., Fernandez‐Guerra, A., Höhne, M., Hehemann, J.‐H. Molecular recognition of the beta‐glucans laminarin and pustulan by a SusD‐like glycan‐binding protein of a marine Bacteroidetes. FEBS J 285, 4465-4481 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.14674
Steffen and Soeren are preparing a camera on the deck of the Poseidon, which takes underwater pictures of zooplankton and particles. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Steffen and Soeren are preparing a camera on the deck of the Poseidon, which takes underwater pictures of zooplankton and particles. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Tense faces as the first depth profile from the CTD appears on the screen. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Tense faces as the first depth profile from the CTD appears on the screen. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Phytoplankton (or microalgae) in the Canary Islands upwelling area. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Phytoplankton (or microalgae) in the Canary Islands upwelling area. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Final agreement at the trade fair between the scientists before the first station is reached. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Final agreement at the trade fair between the scientists before the first station is reached. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
 
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