Marine eukaryotic microalgae play a fundamental role in the n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LC-PUFA) synthesis, essential for the food web consumers. In this context, new techniques can increase our understanding of the functioning of these metabolic pathways in natural ecosystems. For example, microbial metatranscriptomics has proven an efficient toolkit to describe the transcribed functions of oceanic food webs. In this study, fatty acid biosynthesis by in situ microplankton communities was explored in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS) at monthly intervals over a year. This study aimed to relate the community fatty acid signatures with gene expression involved in relevant metabolic pathways. Combining fatty acid analysis with metatranscriptomics revealed similar patterns in fatty acid profiles and desaturase expression, with late autumn and winter samples showing different patterns from the other samples. More-over, fatty acid desaturases were the most diverse, abundant, and most expressed fatty acid-related enzymatic group, suggesting they play a key role in regulating fatty acid biosynthesis. Desaturases were mostly associated with Bacillariophyta, whose role in fatty acids biosynthesis decreased in spring. Importantly, eicosapentaenoic acid, a n-3 LC-PUFA, was one of the main fatty acids contributing to the fatty acid variation in space and time.
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