Banerji A, Bagley M, Elk M, Pilgrim E, Marinson J, Santo Domingo J
US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, USA.
Hydrobiologia. 2018;818(1):71-86. doi: 10.1007/s10750-018-3593-0.
DNA metabarcoding is a sophisticated molecular tool that can enhance biological surveys of freshwater plankton communities by providing broader taxonomic coverage and, for certain groups, higher taxonomic resolution compared to morphological methods. We conducted 18S rRNA gene metabarcoding analyses on 214 water samples collected over a four-month period from multiple sites within a freshwater reservoir. We detected 1,314 unique operational taxonomic units that included various metazoans, protists, chlorophytes, and fungi. Alpha diversity differed among sites, suggesting local habitat variation linked to differing species responses. Strong temporal variation was detected at both daily and monthly scales. Diversity and relative abundance patterns for several protist groups (including dinoflagellates, ciliates, and cryptophytes) differed from arthropods (e.g., cladocerans and copepods), a traditional focus of plankton surveys. This suggests that the protists respond to different environmental dimensions and may therefore provide additional information regarding ecosystem status. Comparison of the sequence-based population survey data to conventional-based data revealed similar trends for taxa that were ranked among the most abundant in both approaches, although some groups were missing in each data set. These results highlight the potential benefit of supplementing conventional biological survey approaches with metabarcoding to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of freshwater plankton community structure and dynamics.
DNA宏条形码技术是一种复杂的分子工具，与形态学方法相比，它可以通过提供更广泛的分类覆盖范围，以及对某些类群更高的分类分辨率，来加强对淡水浮游生物群落的生物学调查。我们对在四个月内从一个淡水水库内的多个地点采集的214份水样进行了18S rRNA基因宏条形码分析。我们检测到1314个独特的可操作分类单元，其中包括各种后生动物、原生生物、绿藻和真菌。不同地点的α多样性有所不同，这表明当地栖息地的差异与不同物种的反应有关。在日尺度和月尺度上均检测到强烈的时间变化。几个原生生物类群（包括甲藻、纤毛虫和隐藻）的多样性和相对丰度模式与节肢动物（如枝角类和桡足类）不同，而节肢动物是浮游生物调查的传统重点。这表明原生生物对不同的环境维度有反应，因此可能提供有关生态系统状况的额外信息。将基于序列的种群调查数据与基于传统方法的数据进行比较，发现两种方法中最丰富的分类群有相似的趋势，尽管每个数据集中都缺少一些类群。这些结果突出了用宏条形码技术补充传统生物学调查方法的潜在好处，以便更全面地了解淡水浮游生物群落的结构和动态。
