Zooplankton diversity analysis through single-gene sequencing of a community sample.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth's surface and are critical for the homeostasis of the environment. Among the components of the ocean ecosystem, zooplankton play vital roles in energy and matter transfer through the system. Despite their importance, understanding of zooplankton biodiversity is limited because of their fragile nature, small body size, and the large number of species from various taxonomic phyla. Here we present the results of single-gene zooplankton community analysis using a method that determines a large number of mitochondrial COI gene sequences from a bulk zooplankton sample. This approach will enable us to estimate the species richness of almost the entire zooplankton community.

Results

A sample was collected from a depth of 721 m to th

SUBMITTER: Machida RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2751789 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature