Dataset Information

Zooplankton diversity analysis through single-gene sequencing of a community sample.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth's surface and are critical for the homeostasis of the environment. Among the components of the ocean ecosystem, zooplankton play vital roles in energy and matter transfer through the system. Despite their importance, understanding of zooplankton biodiversity is limited because of their fragile nature, small body size, and the large number of species from various taxonomic phyla. Here we present the results of single-gene zooplankton community analysis using a method that determines a large number of mitochondrial COI gene sequences from a bulk zooplankton sample. This approach will enable us to estimate the species richness of almost the entire zooplankton community. RESULTS: A sample was collected from a depth of 721 m to the surface in the western equatorial Pacific off Pohnpei Island, Micronesia, with a plankton net equipped with a 2-m2 mouth opening. A total of 1,336 mitochondrial COI gene sequences were determined from the cDNA library made from the sample. From the determined sequences, the occurrence of 189 species of zooplankton was estimated. BLASTN search results showed high degrees of similarity (>98%) between the query and database for 10 species, including holozooplankton and merozooplankton. CONCLUSION: In conjunction with the Census of Marine Zooplankton and Barcode of Life projects, single-gene zooplankton community analysis will be a powerful tool for estimating the species richness of zooplankton communities.

SUBMITTER: Machida RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2751789 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Zooplankton diversity analysis through single-gene sequencing of a community sample.

Machida Ryuji J RJ Hashiguchi Yasuyuki Y Nishida Mutsumi M Nishida Shuhei S

BMC genomics 20090917

<h4>Background</h4>Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth's surface and are critical for the homeostasis of the environment. Among the components of the ocean ecosystem, zooplankton play vital roles in energy and matter transfer through the system. Despite their importance, understanding of zooplankton biodiversity is limited because of their fragile nature, small body size, and the large number of species from various taxonomic phyla. Here we present the results of single-gene zooplankton comm ...[more]

PMID: 19758460

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Project description:BackgroundZooplankton play an important role in our oceans, in biogeochemical cycling and providing a food source for commercially important fish larvae. However, difficulties in correctly identifying zooplankton hinder our understanding of their roles in marine ecosystem functioning, and can prevent detection of long term changes in their community structure. The advent of massively parallel next generation sequencing technology allows DNA sequence data to be recovered directly from whole community samples. Here we assess the ability of such sequencing to quantify richness and diversity of a mixed zooplankton assemblage from a productive time series site in the Western English Channel.Methodology/principle findingsPlankton net hauls (200 µm) were taken at the Western Channel Observatory station L4 in September 2010 and January 2011. These samples were analysed by microscopy and metagenetic analysis of the 18S nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA gene using the 454 pyrosequencing platform. Following quality control a total of 419,041 sequences were obtained for all samples. The sequences clustered into 205 operational taxonomic units using a 97% similarity cut-off. Allocation of taxonomy by comparison with the National Centre for Biotechnology Information database identified 135 OTUs to species level, 11 to genus level and 1 to order, <2.5% of sequences were classified as unknowns. By comparison a skilled microscopic analyst was able to routinely enumerate only 58 taxonomic groups.ConclusionsMetagenetics reveals a previously hidden taxonomic richness, especially for Copepoda and hard-to-identify meroplankton such as Bivalvia, Gastropoda and Polychaeta. It also reveals rare species and parasites. We conclude that Next Generation Sequencing of 18S amplicons is a powerful tool for elucidating the true diversity and species richness of zooplankton communities. While this approach allows for broad diversity assessments of plankton it may become increasingly attractive in future if sequence reference libraries of accurately identified individuals are better populated.

Dataset Information

Zooplankton diversity analysis through single-gene sequencing of a community sample.

Publications

Zooplankton diversity analysis through single-gene sequencing of a community sample.

Similar Datasets

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