How does oil exposure affect centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana?

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill exposed the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico to unprecedented amounts of oil. Determining the response of phytoplankton to the oil spill is crucial to understanding the effects of this event on the marine food-web. In this study, the sensitive diatom (Thalassiosira pseudonana) was exposed to water accommodated fraction of oil (WAF) in an attempt to understand the mechanism of diatom response to this contaminant. Several parameters were ascertained such as absorption coefficient, relative fluorescence, surface area beta carotene, chlorophyll 1, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c, chlorophyll c1c2, protein content and abundance with proteomics. High-performance liquid chromatography and BioTek CytationTM 5 imaging reader controlled by Gen5 2.09 software (USA) were used to acquire data. It was found that WAF leads to extensive oxidative stress in T. pseudonana, and its poor anti-oxidative abilities resulted in cellular damage, specifically to photosynthetic light harvesting proteins caused by oxidative damage. Overall, this study provides a mechanistic understanding of the varying degree of response demonstrated by diatoms to oil exposure.