Fig. 3: Proteome responses in colonies with and without particle associations.

a p value (Welch’s t-test) versus protein abundance reported as fold change for puffs with vs. without particles. Only Trichodesmium proteins are displayed. Below the gray dotted line (p = 0.05), the differences are statistically significant. Positive fold change indicates the protein was more abundant when particles were present. Proteins of interest are highlighted. b–g Relative abundance of selected proteins for the different colony types, presented as box plots (center line = median, box limits = first and third quartiles, whiskers = data min and max, diamonds = outliers). *Indicates statistically significant difference compared to the puffs without particles, p < 0.05.