Metagenomic Sequencing Identifies Highly Diverse Assemblages of Dinoflagellate Cysts in Sediments from Ships' Ballast Tanks.

ABSTRACT: Ships' ballast tanks have long been known as vectors for the introduction of organisms. We applied next-generation sequencing to detect dinoflagellates (mainly as cysts) in 32 ballast tank sediments collected during 2001-2003 from ships entering the Great Lakes or Chesapeake Bay and subsequently archived. Seventy-three dinoflagellates were fully identified to species level by this metagenomic approach and single-cell polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based sequencing, including 19 toxic species, 36 harmful algal bloom (HAB) forming species, 22 previously unreported as producing cysts, and 55 reported from ballast tank sediments for the first time (including 13 freshwater species), plus 545 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) not fully identified due to a lack of reference sequences, indicatin

SUBMITTER: Shang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6724030 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature