Cultivation, genomics, and giant viruses of a ubiquitous and heterotrophic freshwater cryptomonad.

ABSTRACT: Heterotrophic nanoflagellates are the chief agents of bacterivory in the aquatic microbial loop but remain underrepresented in culture collections and in genomic databases. We isolated and characterized a representative of the previously uncultured freshwater Cryptomonad Group 1 (CRY1a) lineage using a genome-streamlined, ultra-small and abundant microbe Planktophila versatilis as a prey and Catalyzed Reporter Deposition-Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (CARD-FISH) probe-based screening. This isolate, Tyrannomonas regina, is one of the most dominant ubiquitous heterotrophic cryptomonads in freshwaters. It is a small heterotrophic nanoflagellate (ca. 3-5 μm) and has the smallest genome of any cryptomonad sequenced thus far. The compact genome (ca. 69 Mb) revealed no traces of a photosynth

SUBMITTER: Mukherjee I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12747079 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature