Novel insights in cryptic diversity of snow and glacier ice algae communities combining 18S rRNA gene and ITS2 amplicon sequencing.

ABSTRACT: Melting snow and glacier surfaces host microalgal blooms in polar and mountainous regions. The aim of this study was to determine the dominant taxa at the species level in the European Arctic and the Alps. A standardized protocol for amplicon metabarcoding using the 18S rRNA gene and ITS2 markers was developed. This is important because previous biodiversity studies have been hampered by the dominance of closely related algal taxa in snow and ice. Due to the limited resolution of partial 18S rRNA Illumina sequences, the hypervariable ITS2 region was used to further discriminate between the genotypes. Our results show that red snow was caused by the cosmopolitan Sanguina nivaloides (Chlamydomonadales, Chlorophyta) and two as of yet undescribed Sanguina species. Arctic orange snow was domina

SUBMITTER: Remias D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10659120 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature