Principal Investigators: Jackie L. Collier
Thraustochytrids from Peconic Bay growing on pollen grains
Funded by NSF Biological Oceanography
Students Supported:Enixy Collado Mercado (M.S. and Ph.D.)
and Andrey Shalamov (undergraduate research)
Project Description: Labyrinthulomycetes (including thraustochytrids, aplanochytrids, and labyrinthulids) are osmoheterotrophic marine protists; that is, they are single-celled organisms that play an important role in the decomposition of particular organic matter in the oceans. While they are the most abundant and widespread fungus-like organisms in the sea, they are neither widely known nor well understood physiologically or ecologically. The primary goals of this project are to determine whether the labyrinthulomycetes that have been grown in laboratory cultures are representative of the ones that are most important in the oceans, and to develop new methods for determining their abundance. We are using molecular genetic methods to directly recover labyrinthulomycete 18S rDNA sequences from sediment and water samples collected at several sites around Long Island, and have discovered at least ten novel groups of uncultivated labyrinthulomycetes so far. We are also developing quantitative real-time PCR assays to measure their abundance.
Labyrinthulomycetes 18S rDNA PCR products amplified from local environmental samples
