Interactions in the phycosphere

The interactions occurring in the phycosphere between algae and bacteria are of different kinds and may influence the growth of microalgae. In the past few years, the growing interest on microalgal industrial and biotechnological applications hijacked the attention of the scientific community on the study of microalgae-bacteria interactions. A deeper knowledge of the composition of the microbiota associated to microalgae and on the mechanisms ruling microalgae-bacteria interactions may improve the current mass-culture techniques and enhance the productivity. Tetraselmis suecica is a green marine alga with several biotechnological applications. It is mainly used for aquaculture and cosmetic applications and for the production of bioactive compounds. Nevertheless, still little is known about the microbiota associated to T. suecica and its effect on the microalga growth, In this thesis the bacterial community associated with T. suecica (strain F&M M33) cultures, grown in different conditions, was described through a metagenomic approach, to evaluate the presence of a stably associated bacterial community. NGS metagenetic analysis were performed on four T. suecica cultures, derived from the same original culture but separated for years, and kept under different growing conditions. Despite the different characteristics of the cultures (seasons and cultures size), a “core” bacterial community was identified, accounting for the large part of the total bacterial community. Among the “core” OTUs it was possible to identify 7 different genera and at least 13 different families. However the relative abundance of the taxa forming the “core” community varied strongly, indicating that growing conditions and/or external contaminations influence the relative abundance of these microorganisms. Moreover, the isolation of strains belonging to the “core” community opened an interesting chance to evaluate the effects of these bacteria on T. suecica growth. The understanding of which molecules are involved in the interactions is a fundamental part in the study of microalgal-bacteria interaction. The associated bacterial population, release several compounds which may act as microalgal growth promoting features (MPG) affecting different aspects of microalgae such the composition in terms of lipids, pigments or cell dimensions. However, to date only few studies have phenotypically characterized bacteria associated with microalgae for the selection of microalgal growth-promoting bacteria. Therefore, in this thesis 200 bacterial strains were isolated from different cultures of Tetraselmis suecica, identified through 16S rDNA sequencing and phenotypically characterized for MPG traits. 46 strains were been identified as producers of MPG compounds: either indol-3-acetic acid (IAA) and/or siderophores. 22 isolates were tested in co-cultures with the axenic microalga to their effects on T. suecica growth: 4 of them showed a positive effect on microalgal growth. In particular two strains: Vitellibacter sp. and Sphyngopyxis flavimaris were able to enhance considerably the growth of T. suecica, in the condition tested. To deepen the knowledge of the molecules involved in the interactions, the supernatants T. suecica cultures, axenic and in co-culture with Vitellibacter sp. or Sphyngopyxis flavimaris, were analyzed with a non-targeted metabolomics approach. The characterization of the exo-metabolome of T. suecica, was described for the first time. It was possible to identify culture-characteristics compounds and several compounds involved in the metabolism of vitamins. It was observed that Sphyngopyxis flavimaris produce IAA also in co-culture conditions.