Revealing population traits of locally adapted filamentous cyanobacteria – using multiomics

The dense blooms of filamentous cyanobacteria formed during summer in the Baltic Sea are dominated by three different taxa, and they all use individual growth strategies resulting in variable responses to climate change, i.e., decreased salinity and elevated temperature.

However, taxa-specific responses are not consistent and could be explained by the existence of locally adapted sub-populations, or so-called ecotypes.

This project aims to elucidate ecological drivers and adaptations in basin-specific cyanobacterial populations by using an array of field and laboratory experiments applying a mixture of genomic tools and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (multiomics).Specifically, the project will reveal how I) basin-specific cyanobacterial population traits and II) gene expression and metabolome patterns, varies across basins in the Baltic Sea in response to differences in salinity and other environmental drivers.

Additionally the project will III) transplant cyanobacterial ecotypes into a salinity matrix of natural Baltic Sea water to address adaptation strategies and resilience across basins, and finally also IV) cross-transplant fresh isolates to water of origin and contrasting environments to address adaptation in a series of competition experiments.

This project will provide knowledge and genomic data pivotal for our understanding on how cyanobacterial population dynamics, their toxicity, and evolutional strategies are affected by climate change in coastal areas.