M/Z: 576.0895

Grape berries fruit, condition: Ripe

Grape berries fruit, condition: Late

Fig. 4 MALDI-MSI data of mouse lung tissue after administration with D9-choline and U13C-DPPC–containing Poractant alfa surfactant (labels administered 12 h prior to tissue collection). Ion images of (A) m/z 796.6856 ([U13C-DPPC+Na]+), (B) m/z 756.5154 [PC32:0+Na]+), and (C) m/z 765.6079 ([D9-PC32:0+Na]+). D: Overlay image of [U13C-PC32:0+Na]+ (red) and [D9-PC32:0+Na]+ (green). Part-per-million (ppm) mass errors are indicated in parentheses. All images were visualized using total-ion-current normalization and using hotspot removal (high quantile = 99%). DPPC = PC16:0/16:0. MSI, mass spectrometry imaging; PC, phosphatidylcholine; U13C-DPPC, universally 13C-labeled dipalmitoyl PC.

Fig 6c Fig. 6 MALDI-MSI of U13C-PC16:0/16:0 acyl chain remodeling. A: Averaged MALDI mass spectrum from lung tissue collected from mice euthanized 12 h after administration of D9-choline and U13C-DPPC–containing Poractant alfa surfactant. The ion at m/z 828.6321 is assigned as the [M+Na]+ ion of 13C24-PC16:0_20:4 formed by acyl remodeling of U13C-PC16:0/16:0. The “NL” value refers to the intensity of the base peak in the full range MS1 spectrum. B: MS/MS spectrum of precursor ions at m/z 828.5 ± 0.5 with fragment ions originating from [13C24-PC16:0_20:4+Na]+ annotated. Part-per-million (ppm) mass errors are provided in parentheses. C, D: MALDI-MSI data of [U13C-DPPC+Na]+ (blue), [PC36:4+Na]+ (green) and [13C24-PC16:0_20:4+Na]+ (red) in lung tissue collected from mice (C) 12 h and (D) 18 h after label administration. All images were visualized using total-ion-current normalization and hotspot removal (high quantile = 99%). MS/MS, tandem mass spectrometry; MSI, mass spectrometry imaging; PC, phosphatidylcholine; U13C-DPPC, universally 13C-labeled dipalmitoyl PC.

Seagrasses are one of the most efficient natural sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) on Earth. Despite covering less than 0.1% of coastal regions, they have the capacity to bury up to 10% of marine organic matter and can bury the same amount of carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. On land, the soil’s ability to sequestrate carbon is intimately linked to microbial metabolism. Despite the growing attention to the link between plant production, microbial communities, and the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems, these processes remain enigmatic in the sea. Here, we show that seagrasses excrete organic sugars, namely in the form of sucrose, into their rhizospheres. Surprisingly, the microbial communities living underneath meadows do not fully use this sugar stock in their metabolism. Instead, sucrose piles up in the sediments to mM concentrations underneath multiple types of seagrass meadows. Sediment incubation experiments show that microbial communities living underneath a meadow use sucrose at low metabolic rates. Our metagenomic analyses revealed that the distinct community of microorganisms occurring underneath meadows is limited in their ability to degrade simple sugars, which allows these compounds to persist in the environment over relatively long periods of time. Our findings reveal how seagrasses form blue carbon stocks despite the relatively small area they occupy. Unfortunately, anthropogenic disturbances are threatening the long-term persistence of seagrass meadows. Given that these sediments contain a large stock of sugars that heterotopic bacteria can degrade, it is even more important to protect these ecosystems from degradation.

Seagrasses are among the most efficient sinks of carbon dioxide on Earth. While carbon sequestration in terrestrial plants is linked to the microorganisms living in their soils, the interactions of seagrasses with their rhizospheres are poorly understood. Here, we show that the seagrass, Posidonia oceanica excretes sugars, mainly sucrose, into its rhizosphere. These sugars accumulate to µM concentrations—nearly 80 times higher than previously observed in marine environments. This finding is unexpected as sugars are readily consumed by microorganisms. Our experiments indicated that under low oxygen conditions, phenolic compounds from P. oceanica inhibited microbial consumption of sucrose. Analyses of the rhizosphere community revealed that many microbes had the genes for degrading sucrose but these were only expressed by a few taxa that also expressed genes for degrading phenolics. Given that we observed high sucrose concentrations underneath three other species of marine plants, we predict that the presence of plant-produced phenolics under low oxygen conditions allows the accumulation of labile molecules across aquatic rhizospheres.