Comparative analysis of freshwater phytoplankton communities in two lakes of Burabay National Park using morphological and molecular approaches
Malashenkov D.V. Dashkova V. Zhakupova K. Vorobjev I.A. Barteneva N.S.
December 2021Nature Research
Scientific Reports
2021#11Issue 1
We analyzed phytoplankton assemblages’ variations in oligo-mesotrophic Shchuchie and Burabay lakes using traditional morphological and next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches. The total phytoplankton biodiversity and abundance estimated by both microscopy and NGS were significantly higher in Lake Burabay than in Lake Shchuchie. NGS of 16S and 18S rRNA amplicons adequately identify phytoplankton taxa only on the genera level, while species composition obtained by microscopic examination was significantly larger. The limitations of NGS analysis could be related to insufficient coverage of freshwater lakes phytoplankton by existing databases, short algal sequences available from current instrumentation, and high homology of chloroplast genes in eukaryotic cells. However, utilization of NGS, together with microscopy allowed us to perform a complete taxonomic characterization of phytoplankton lake communities including picocyanobacteria, often overlooked by traditional microscopy. We demonstrate the high potential of an integrated morphological and molecular approach in understanding the processes of organization in aquatic ecosystem assemblages.
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National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Core Facilities, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Department of Biology, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
EREC, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Department of General Ecology and Hydrobiology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
National Laboratory Astana
School of Engineering and Digital Sciences
Core Facilities
Department of Biology
EREC
Department of General Ecology and Hydrobiology
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