Abstract

Marine prokaryotic communities play central roles in ocean’s ecosystems functioning and in the ocean’s resilience to global change. These communities are extremely diverse in terms of taxonomy, metabolic capabilities and activities, and show a remarkable ability to persist from months to years when facing unfavorable conditions by becoming dormant (a reversible state of low metabolic activity). Despite more than 40% of the prokaryotic cells in the ocean may be found in a dormant state, the growth-arrest response leading to dormancy and strategies for survival have been barely explored in marine prokaryotes. CROSS-POINT aims at generating knowledge on this growth-arrest response by i) exploring the molecular basis of dormancy in marine metagenomes, ii) evaluating survival strategies in ecologically relevant marine isolates and iii) shedding light on the potential role of dormancy as a mechanism to resist viral infections. For this purpose, CROSS-POINT will use a multifaceted approach that combines metagenomics, single-cell approaches, transcriptomics and proteomics.

Marta Sebastián

Staff scientist