Illuminating the key biological processes during the blooming period of a marine dinoflagellate by metaproteomics

Dinoflagellate blooms are natural phenomena that have drawn global attention due to their huge negative impacts on marine ecosystems, mariculture and human health. Although the understanding of dinoflagellate blooms has been significantly improved over the past half century, little is known about the underlying mechanisms sustaining the high biomass growth rate during the bloom period which is paradoxically characterized by low dissolved CO2 and inorganic nutrients. Here, we compared the metaproteomes of non-bloom, mid-bloom and late-bloom cells of a marine dinoflagellate Prorocentrum donghaiense in the coastal East China Sea, to understand the underlying mechanisms sustaining high biomass growth rate under the typically low CO2 and inorganic nutrient conditions.