Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2017
The best of both worlds: a combined approach for analyzing microalgal diversity via metabarcoding and morphology-based methods
Groendahl, Sophie; Kahlert, Maria; Fink, PatrickAbstract
An increasing number of studies use next generation sequencing (NGS) to analyze complex communities, but is the method sensitive enough when it comes to identification and quantification of species? We compared NGS with morphology-based identification methods in an analysis of microalgal (periphyton) communities. We conducted a mesocosm experiment in which we allowed two benthic grazer species to feed upon benthic biofilms, which resulted in altered periphyton communities. Morphology-based identification and 454 (Roche) pyro-sequencing of the V4 region in the small ribosomal unit (18S) rDNA gene were used to investigate the community change caused by grazing. Both the NGS-based data and the morphology-based method detected a marked shift in the biofilm composition, though the two methods varied strongly in their abilities to detect and quantify specific taxa, and neither method was able to detect all species in the biofilms. For quantitative analysis, we therefore recommend using both metabarcoding and microscopic identification when assessing the community composition of eukaryotic microorganisms.Published in
PLoS ONE2017, volume: 12, number: 2
Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Authors' information
Groendahl, Sophie
University of Cologne
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment
Fink, Patrick
University of Cologne
Fink, Patrick
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
UKÄ Subject classification
Botany
Genetics
Environmental Sciences
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172808
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/80685