Unveiling trophic functions of uncultured protist taxa by incubation experiments in the brackish Baltic Sea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Our knowledge of the phylogeny and diversity of aquatic protists is rapidly increasing due to molecular surveys and next-generation sequencing approaches. This has led to a considerable discrepancy between the taxa known from cultures and those known from environmental 18S rRNA gene sequences. Hence, it is generally difficult to assign ecological functions to new taxa detected by culture-independent molecular approaches.

Methodology/principal findings

A combination of unamended dark incubations and 18S rRNA sequencing was chosen to link molecular diversity data of uncultured protists with heterotrophic, presumably bacterivorous, growth. The incubations, conducted with Baltic Sea brackish water, resulted in a consistent shift from a protistan community dominated by

SUBMITTER: Weber F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3408427 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature