Anupam Sengupta, University of Luxembourg

for the The Parsons Lab Microbial Systems Seminar Series @MIT

Abstract: The ability of microbes to rapidly respond to environmental cues, spanning vastly different time and length scales, is a conundrum that has long intrigued biologists and physicists alike. In this talk I will focus on one of the key cellular traits – adaptation – and ask how this emerges in motile phytoplankton due to a universal environmental parameter: hydrodynamic fluctuations. Using bloom forming species as model microbes, I will present recent results that show how phytoplankton can rapidly trait-shift in response to fluctuations in their hydrodynamic environment. We uncover that phytoplankton can actively diversify their phenotypic traits [1], and that this emergent behavioral switch is underpinned by generation of physiological stress. Intriguingly, the dynamics of stress generation and dissipation are coupled to the structure and duration of the imposed fluctuating field [2]. I will discuss our ongoing efforts to uncover the physiological ramifications of the fluctuating cues, both over short and longer timescales relative to the division times. I will conclude by highlighting the generality of our results across phytoplankton species, and why our efforts to decode the principles governing fluctuation induced emergent functions are critical in deciphering fitness and community landscapes, more so during the rapidly shifting patterns that we encounter in our environment today.

[1] Phytoplankton can actively diversify their migration strategy in response to turbulent cues: A. Sengupta*, F. Carrara*, R. Stocker, Nature 543, 555, 2017.

[2] The dynamics of stress generation determine the migration behavior of phytoplankton in turbulence: F. Carrara*, A. Sengupta*, L. Behrendt, A. Vardi, R. Stocker (to be submitted).