Benthic eukaryotic diversity in the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vent environment.

ABSTRACT: Molecular microbial ecology studies have revealed remarkable prokaryotic diversity in extreme hydrothermal marine environments. There are no comparable reports of culture-independent surveys of eukaryotic life in warm, anoxic marine sediments. By using sequence comparisons of PCR-amplified small subunit ribosomal RNAs, we characterized eukaryotic diversity in hydrothermal vent environments of Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. Many sequences from these anoxic sediments and the overlaying seawater represent previously uncharacterized protists, including early branching eukaryotic lineages or extended diversity within described taxa. At least two mechanisms, with overlapping consequences, account for the eukaryotic community structure of this environment. The adaptation to anoxic envir

SUBMITTER: Edgcomb VP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC124314 | biostudies-literature | 2002 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature