Abstract
THE biologically labile fraction of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the oceans seems to be a chemically complex solution of a wide variety of compounds derived mainly from the contents of cellular metabolic pools released into the seawater after the death and cell lysis of marine organisms. This fraction is of particular geochemical interest because of its importance in understanding the cycling of organic matter in the marine environment. Because of methodological problems arising from the extremely low concentrations of individual compounds, compound-specific analyses have been limited to only a few components of the DOM, such as ammo acids1, lipids2, sugars5, and vitamins3. Adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP) would be a useful tracer for following the production and fate of labile DOM in seawater as it is a universal component of the cellular metabolic pools of all living organisms. We report here that dissolved ATP (DATP) occurs in seawater in significant concentrations (0.1–0.6 µg 1−1) and is utilised rapidly by marine bacteria.
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AZAM, F., HODSON, R. Dissolved ATP in the sea and its utilisation by marine bacteria. Nature 267, 696–698 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267696a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/267696a0
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