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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1999, p. 4528-4536, Vol. 65, No. 10
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Diversity and Abundance of Bolidophyceae (Heterokonta) in Two Oceanic Regions

Laure Guillou,1,* Seung-Yeo Moon-Van Der Staay,1,dagger Herve Claustre,2 Frederic Partensky,1 and Daniel Vaulot1

Station Biologique de Roscoff, UPR CNRS 9042, INSU, and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, F-29682 Roscoff Cedex,1 and Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche, Laboratoire de Physique et de Chimie Marines, URA CNRS 2076, INSU, and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, F-06238 Villefranche-sur-mer Cedex,2 France

Received 10 May 1999/Accepted 5 August 1999

The diversity and abundance of the Bolidophyceae (Heterokonta), a newly described picoplanktonic algal class which is a sister group to the diatoms, was assessed in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea by culture isolation, molecular biology techniques, and pigment analyses. Eight strains of Bolidophyceae were isolated in culture from different mesotrophic and oligotrophic areas. The corresponding small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences allowed us to design two probes specific for the Bolidophyceae. These probes have been used in natural samples (i) to selectively amplify and detect Bolidophyceae sequences and (ii) to quantify the relative abundance of Bolidophyceae within the picoeukaryote community. Sequences available to date indicate that the class Bolidophyceae comprises at least three different clades, two corresponding to the previously described species Bolidomonas pacifica and Bolidomonas mediterranea and the third one corresponding to a subspecies of B. pacifica. Amplification of the SSU rRNA gene from natural samples with universal primers and hybridization using a Bolidomonas-specific probe followed by a eukaryote-specific probe allowed us to estimate the contribution of the Bolidophyceae to the eukaryotic DNA in both Pacific and Mediterranean waters to be lower than 1%. Similarly, high-performance liquid chromatography analyses of fucoxanthin, the major carotenoid present in Bolidophyceae, indicated that less than 4% of the total chlorophyll a in the picoplanktonic fraction in the equatorial Pacific was due to Bolidophyceae. Consequently, although strains of Bolidophyceae have been isolated from samples collected at several stations, this new class seems to have been a minor component of the natural picoeukaryotic populations in the ecosystems investigated, at least during the periods sampled.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Station Biologique, BP 74, F-29682 Roscoff Cedex, France. Phone: (33) 2 98 29 23 14. Fax: (33) 2 98 29 23 24. E-mail: lguillou{at}sb-roscoff.fr.

dagger Present address: Universität zu Köln, Botanisches Institut, Lehrstuhl I, 50931 Köln, Germany.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1999, p. 4528-4536, Vol. 65, No. 10
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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