Reverse taxonomy: an approach towards determining the diversity of meiobenthic organisms based on ribosomal RNA signature sequences.

ABSTRACT: Organisms living in or on the sediment layer of water bodies constitute the benthos fauna, which is known to harbour a large number of species of diverse taxonomic groups. The benthos plays a significant role in the nutrient cycle and it is, therefore, of high ecological relevance. Here, we have explored a DNA-taxonomic approach to access the meiobenthic organismic diversity, by focusing on obtaining signature sequences from a part of the large ribosomal subunit rRNA (28S), the D3-D5 region. To obtain a broad representation of taxa, benthos samples were taken from 12 lakes in Germany, representing different ecological conditions. In a first approach, we have extracted whole DNA from these samples, amplified the respective fragment by PCR, cloned the fragments and sequenced individual clone

SUBMITTER: Markmann M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1609229 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature