Internal Cycle of Seminars at IMEDEA (CISI) consist on a cycle of seminar presentations given mainly by doctoral students, masters and junior postdocs, although it is not closed to other staff, such as visitors and staff, that take place every Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m in the seminar room os IMEDEA.

This represents a great opportunity to learn more about the research carried out at the Institute and to bring those with less experience , the chance of increasing their presentation and public speaking skills. Afterwards, there will be coffee and some biscuits 😉 We strongly encourage you to participate. Join us!

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"The weekly seminars at IMEDEA are not only crucial for academic development but also provide the opportunity to present research"

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Internal Cycle of Seminars IMEDEA - Òscar Guadayol - «Engineering skills of a phytoplankton cell»

26/10/2023

Abstract

Microbes are the most important organisms in the ocean and play a major role in the regulation of Earth’s climate. However their lives unfold not at such global scales but at the microscale, where inertia is unimportant and viscosity rules all. Phytoplankton cells could be using this fact to their advantage when exuding expolymeric substances (EPS).

These substances alter the viscosity of water, and thus may allow them to control the transport of chemicals and particles around them. To test this idea, we used microrheological techniques to map viscosity with micron resolution around phytoplankton cells and inside aggregates, revealing the existence of steep gradients at the microscale. These gradients, as our numerical models show, can alter the dynamics and conformation of the chemical landscape, and affect the motility and chemotactic performance of bacteria.

I will argue that, altogether, this suggests that secreting EPS could be a strategy for a phytoplankton cell to scaffold the phycosphere and optimize both resource acquisition and interactions with fellow microbes.

Link top the video here