Aridane Gonzalez

Iron and manganese co-impact in marine environments

PostDoctoral Fellow: Dr Aridane G. Gonzàlez
Scientific Sponsors: Géraldine Sarthou (LEMAR)
LabexMer Research axis 2 : complexity and efficiency of the biological pump

The biogeochemical cycle of Fe and Mn are particularly interesting because they present common sources to the ocean: atmosphere, rivers, marine ice and continental, sediments and hydrothermal sources. These metals are essential micronutrient for microorganisms. However, recent investigations also suggest that Mn could interrupt the Fe acquisition by certain microbes and plants which produce siderophores via competition in the formation of complexes Fe-siderophores and Mn-siderophores.

The competition between Mn(III) and Fe(III) by complexes with siderophores via ligand transfer mechanisms has been highlighted. In addition, these results support the hypothesis that Mn avoids the absorption of Fe via modification of organic complexation with siderophores. However, this hypothesis has never been verified in marine environments.

In this project we are studying the Fe-Mn interaction in seawater and the effect in the growth of microorganisms. For that, we studied the physico-chemical reactions between Fe and Mn in solution, the complexation of Fe and Mn with organic ligands produced by microalga. The final step will be the proteomic study of this Fe-Mn co-limitation. The goal is to identify the hypothesis and will determine if the co-impact is due to the reactions produced in solution, proteomic modification or both of them.

Personal webpage: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Yf596g8AAAAJ&hl=es