Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

PC04 Microbial Diversity

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Location: Southwest Hall

Atkins, M, S, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA, matkins@whoi.edu

Teske, A, P, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA, ateske@whoi.edu

Taylor, C, D, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA, ctaylor@whoi.edu

Wirsen, C, O, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA, cwirsen@whoi.edu

Anderson, O, R, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory/Columbia University, Palisades, USA, ora@ldeo.columbia.edu

FLAGELLATE DIVERSITY AND ECOLOGY AT DEEP-SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENTS

Eighteen strains of flagellated protists, representing 9 species from 6 taxonomic orders, were isolated and cultured from four deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Many of the vent isolates are ubiquitous members of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems world-wide, suggesting a global distribution of these flagellate species. This discovery advanced the hypothesis that ubiquity in distribution patterns among heterotrophic flagellates implies high tolerance and/or adaptability to a wide range of environmental conditions. Experiments under vent conditions of high pressure and high concentrations of metals and sulfide showed that some of these species are very tolerant to extreme environmental conditions. Deep-sea vent samples were both cultured to select for kinetoplastid flagellates and analyzed without culturing by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) using PCR primers specific to the kinetoplastid clade. PCR and DGGE were able to specifically isolate and amplify target DNA's from all cultured kinetoplastid species in matching vent samples, thus corroborating the findings of culturing. Molecular methods had the additional ability to detect species presence where culturing did not, thereby providing a better indication of the distribution of these species.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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