Boiteau Lab

Publications

2023

Moffett, J. W., & Boiteau, R. M. (2024). Metal Organic Complexation in Seawater: Historical Background and Future Directions. Annual Review of Marine Science, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV-MARINE-033023-083652

The speciation of most biologically active trace metals in seawater is dominated by complexation by organic ligands. This review traces the history of work in this area, from the early observations that showed surprisingly poor recoveries using metal preconcentration protocols to the present day, where advances in mass spectroscopy and stable isotope geochemistry are providing new insights into the structure, origin, fate, and biogeochemical impact of organic ligands. 

Dewey, C; Kaplan, D. I., Fendorf, S., Boiteau, R. M. (2023) Quantitative Separation of Unknown Organic-Metal Complexes by Liquid Chromatography – Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry. Analytical Chemistry, 95(20), 7960–7967. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c00696 

Accurately quantifying metal-organic species by LC-ICPMS has remained an analytical challenge due to drifting sensitivities during chromatographic separations. This paper developed a new 'gold standard' methods for separating and quantifying metal species from environmental samples that yields near-quantitative recoveries for a wide range of transition metals. 

Miranda, C, Boiteau R. M., McKenna A. M., Knapp A. N. (2023) Quantitative and qualitative comparison of marine dissolved organic nitrogen recovery using solid phase extraction. Limnol. Oceanogr. Methods. In press https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10558 

Marine dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON) are major global carbon and nutrient reservoirs, and their characterization relies on extraction methods for preconcentration and salt removal. Existing methods optimize for capturing and describing DOC. This study reports an optimized solid phase extraction strategy to recover marine DON for subsequent molecular characterization.  The approach provides a methodological basis for understanding how DON composition varies across the ocean and determine the processes that govern the supply and removal of this critical organic nutrient. 

2022

Boiteau, R. M.; Repeta, D. J. Slow Kinetics of Iron Binding to Marine Ligands in Seawater Measured by Isotope Exchange Liquid Chromatography − Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. (2022) Environmental Science and Technology, 56(6), 3770-3779,. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06922.

Current understanding of dissolved iron (Fe) speciation in the ocean is largely based on liquid chromatography mass spectrometry methods that characterize ligands at a molecular level, but the kinetic and thermodynamic metal-binding properties of these metal species has remained difficult to determine.  This paper describes a method for determining Fe–ligand dissociation rate constants (kd) of suites of naturally occurring ligands in seawater by monitoring the exchange of ligand-bound 56Fe with 57Fe using liquid chromatography–inductively coupled mass spectrometry. These measurements provide critical information needed to develop metal speciation models that can deconvolve the molecular complexity found in the environment.

Casey, J. R.; Boiteau, R. M.; Engqvist, M. K. M.; Finkel, Z. V; Li, G.; Liefer, J.; Müller, C. L.; Muñoz, N.; Follows, M. J. Basin-Scale Biogeography of Marine Phytoplankton Reflects Cellular-Scale Optimization of Metabolism and Physiology. Science Adv. 2022, 8 (3). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl4930.

Phytoplankton serve as the foundation of marine ecosystems. A curious aspect of  the most abundant phytoplantkon, prochlorococcus, is their very small genomes and significant diversity across environmental gradients, reflecting genome streamlining that optimizes cellular fitness.  To interpret the structuring role of variations in genetic potential, as well as metabolic and physiological acclimation, we developed a mechanistic constraint-based modeling framework that incorporates the full suite of genes, proteins, metabolic reactions, pigments, and biochemical compositions of 69 sequenced isolates spanning the Prochlorococcus pangenome. Predicted growth rates covaried with observed ecotype abundances, affirming their significance as a measure of fitness. Our study demonstrates the potential to interpret global-scale ecosystem organization in terms of cellular-scale metabolic processes.

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