Niche Partitioning of Labyrinthulomycete Protists Across Sharp Coastal Gradients and Their Putative Relationships With Bacteria and Fungi.

ABSTRACT: While planktonic microbes play key roles in the coastal oceans, our understanding of heterotrophic microeukaryotes' ecology, particularly their spatiotemporal patterns, drivers, and functions, remains incomplete. In this study, we focus on a ubiquitous marine fungus-like protistan group, the Labyrinthulomycetes, whose biomass can exceed that of bacterioplankton in coastal oceans but whose ecology is largely unknown. Using quantitative PCR and amplicon sequencing of their 18S rRNA genes, we examine their community variation in repeated five-station transects across the nearshore-to-offshore surface waters of North Carolina, United States. Their total 18S rRNA gene abundance and phylotype richness decrease significantly from the resource-rich nearshore to the oligotrophic offshore waters, bu

SUBMITTER: Xie N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9171235 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature