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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2007, p. 3936-3944, Vol. 73, No. 12
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00592-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Aerobic Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria Attached to Particles in Turbid Waters of the Delaware and Chesapeake Estuaries ^,

Lisa A. Waidner and David L. Kirchman^*

College of Marine and Earth Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware 19958

Received 14 March 2007/ Accepted 23 April 2007

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic (AAP) bacteria are photoheterotrophs that, if abundant, may be biogeochemically important in the oceans. We used epifluorescence microscopy and quantitative PCR (qPCR) to examine the abundance of these bacteria by enumerating cells with bacteriochlorophyll a (bChl a) and the light-reaction center gene pufM, respectively. In the surface waters of the Delaware estuary, AAP bacteria were abundant, comprising up to 34% of prokaryotes, although the percentage varied greatly with location and season. On average, AAP bacteria made up 12% of the community as measured by microscopy and 17% by qPCR. In the surface waters of the Chesapeake, AAP bacteria were less abundant, averaging 6% of prokaryotes. AAP bacterial abundance was significantly correlated with light attenuation (r = 0.50) and ammonium (r = 0.42) and nitrate (r = 0.71) concentrations. Often, bChl a-containing bacteria were mostly attached to particles (31 to 94% of total AAP bacteria), while usually 20% or less of total prokaryotes were associated with particles. Of the cells containing pufM, up to 87% were associated with particles, but the overall average of particle-attached cells was 15%. These data suggest that AAP bacteria are particularly competitive in these two estuaries, in part due to attachment to particles.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: College of Marine and Earth Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, DE 19958. Phone: (302) 645-4375. Fax: (302) 645-4028. E-mail: kirchman{at}udel.edu

Published ahead of print on 27 April 2007.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2007, p. 3936-3944, Vol. 73, No. 12
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00592-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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