Feeling special, no one like you... except microbes, etc.

Science Daily/University of Hawaii at Manoa, 7/10/11.  "Ocean's most abundant organisms have clear daily cycles."

They stop-off at their Starbucks too

"Summary.  In every drop of ocean water, hundreds of types of bacteria can be found. Now scientists have discovered that communities of these ocean microbes have their own daily cycles -- not unlike the residents of a bustling city who tend to wake up, commute, work, and eat at the same times. What's more, it's not all about the sun. These bacteria have been observed turning on diel cycling genes at slightly different times -— suggesting a wave of transcriptional activity that passes through the microbial community each day.

....  "For any given species, the gene transcripts for specific metabolic pathways turn on at the same time each day, which suggests a sort of temporal compartmentalization," said DeLong, who was the first scientist to be hired by the University under the auspices of the Hawai'i Innovation Initiative. "It's a biologically and biogeochemically relevant new result."

....   "There are some fundamental laws to be learned about how organisms interact, to make the system work better as a whole and be more efficient," DeLong said. "At its base, that's one of the main things we're after in SCOPE -- these fundamental principles that make ecosystems work. These findings have tremendous applications in all sorts of arenas."   Read article.

Reference - Water Encyclopedia, "Microbes in the Ocean."  National Geographic, "The ocean, photo gallery:  Marine Microbes."  Novozymes.  "Microorganisms are microscopic, living, single-celled organisms such as bacteria. Ubiquitous throughout the world, microorganisms play a vital role in supporting and maintaining nature and life.  

Note:  photograph from Center for microbial oceanography: research and education, 2/12/09. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh