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Science 27 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5799, pp. 652 - 654
DOI: 10.1126/science.1131043
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Reports

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate Uptake by Marine Phytoplankton

Maria Vila-Costa,1* Rafel Simó,1* Hyakubun Harada,2 Josep M. Gasol,1 Doris Slezak,2 Ronald P. Kiene2

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) accounts for most of the organic sulfur fluxes from primary to secondary producers in marine microbial food webs. Incubations of natural communities and axenic cultures with radio-labeled DMSP showed that dominant phytoplankton groups of the ocean, the unicellular cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus and diatoms, as well as heterotrophic bacteria take up and assimilate DMSP sulfur, thus diverting a proportion of plankton-produced organic sulfur from emission into the atmosphere.

1 Departament de Biologia Marina i Oceanografia, Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC), Pg Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
2 Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mariavila{at}icm.csic.es (M.V.-C.); rsimo{at}icm.csic.es (R.S.)

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