Robinson Nathan J, Majewska Roksana, Lazo-Wasem Eric A, Nel Ronel, Paladino Frank V, Rojas Lourdes, Zardus John D, Pinou Theodora
The Leatherback Trust, Goldring-Gund Marine Biology Station, Playa Grande, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Department of Biology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2016 Jun 3;11(6):e0157011. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157011. eCollection 2016.
The macro-epibiotic communities of sea turtles have been subject to growing interest in recent years, yet their micro-epibiotic counterparts are almost entirely unknown. Here, we provide the first evidence that diatoms are epibionts for all seven extant species of sea turtle. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy, we inspected superficial carapace or skin samples from a single representative of each turtle species. We distinguished 18 diatom taxa from these seven individuals, with each sea turtle species hosting at least two diatom taxa. We recommend that future research is undertaken to confirm whether diatom communities vary between sea turtle species and whether these diatom taxa are facultative or obligate commensals.
近年来，海龟的大型体表共生群落越来越受到关注，但其小型体表共生群落几乎完全不为人知。在此，我们首次提供证据表明硅藻是所有七种现存海龟物种的体表共生生物。我们使用扫描电子显微镜检查了每种海龟物种的单个代表的表层甲壳或皮肤样本。我们从这七个个体中区分出了18个硅藻分类单元，每个海龟物种至少有两个硅藻分类单元。我们建议未来开展研究，以确认硅藻群落在不同海龟物种之间是否存在差异，以及这些硅藻分类单元是兼性共生还是专性共生。
