Cryptic and ubiquitous aplastidic cryptophytes are key freshwater flagellated bacterivores.

ABSTRACT: Morphology-based microscopic approaches are insufficient for a taxonomic classification of bacterivorous heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) in aquatic environments since their cells do not display reliably distinguishable morphological features. This leads to a considerable lack of ecological insights into this large and taxonomically diverse functional guild. Here, we present a combination of fluorescence in situ hybridization followed by catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD-FISH) and environmental sequence analyses which revealed that morphologically indistinguishable, so far largely cryptic and uncultured aplastidic cryptophytes are ubiquitous and prominent protistan bacterivores in diverse freshwater ecosystems. Using a general probe for Cryptophyceae and its heterotrophic CRY1 lineage

SUBMITTER: Simek K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9751141 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature