CARD-FISH and prey tracer techniques reveal the role of overlooked flagellate groups as major bacterivores in freshwater hypertrophic shallow lakes.

ABSTRACT: Heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) and ciliates are major protistan planktonic bacterivores. The term HNF, however, describes a functional guild only and, in contrast to the morphologically distinguishable ciliates, does not reflect the phylogenetic diversity of flagellates in aquatic ecosystems. Associating a function with taxonomic affiliation of key flagellate taxa is currently a major task in microbial ecology. We investigated seasonal changes in the HNF and ciliate community composition as well as taxa-specific bacterivory in four hypertrophic freshwater lakes. Taxa-specific catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization probes assigned taxonomic affiliations to 51%-96% (average ±SD, 75 ± 14%) of total HNF. Ingestion rates of fluorescently labelled bacteria unveiled

SUBMITTER: Simek K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9788210 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature