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Science 29 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5526, pp. 2492 - 2495
DOI: 10.1126/science.1059707
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Reports

Contribution of Aerobic Photoheterotrophic Bacteria to the Carbon Cycle in the Ocean

Zbigniew S. Kolber,1* F. Gerald , Plumley,2 Andrew S. Lang,3 J. Thomas Beatty,3 Robert E. Blankenship,4 Cindy L. VanDover,5 Costantino Vetriani,1 Michal Koblizek,1 Christopher Rathgeber,6 Paul G. Falkowski17

The vertical distribution of bacteriochlorophyll a, the numbers of infrared fluorescent cells, and the variable fluorescence signal at 880 nanometers wavelength, all indicate that photosynthetically competent anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria are abundant in the upper open ocean and comprise at least 11% of the total microbial community. These organisms are facultative photoheterotrophs, metabolizing organic carbon when available, but are capable of photosynthetic light utilization when organic carbon is scarce. They are globally distributed in the euphotic zone and represent a hitherto unrecognized component of the marine microbial community that appears to be critical to the cycling of both organic and inorganic carbon in the ocean.

1 Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8521, USA.
2 Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3.
4 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1604, USA.
5 Biology Department, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187, USA.
6 Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba, 407 Buller Building , Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2.
7 Department of Geology, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8066, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zkolber{at}imcs.rutgers.edu

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