Use of Flow Cytometric Sorting to Assess the Diversity of Eukaryotic Picophytoplankton of Lakes
利用流式细胞仪分选技术研究湖泊真核超微藻的遗传多样性

A novel approach based on flow cytometric sorting followed by construction of 18S rRNA clone libraries was used to study the diversity of eukaryotic picophytoplankton of lakes. The composition of eukaryotic picophytoplankton community appeared highly variable in three lakes. Eukaryotic picophytoplankton was dominated by Cryptophyta in the Lake Xuanwu, and was mainly composed of Cryptophyta and Chrysophyta in the Lake Zixia. In the Lake Taihu, four phyla were discovered, including Cryptophyta, Chrysophyta, Bacillariophyta and Chlorophyta. Meanwhile, the diversity of eukaryotic picophytoplankton differed in various lake regions. In the Meiliang Bay, Chrysophyta was the dominant, and the other three phyla were found in the Gonghu Bay. In the central lake, all of those four phyla were discovered, implying this region contained the highest diversity. The canonical correspondence analysis between the diversity of eukaryotic picophytoplankton and environmental factors revealed the concentration of total phosphorus had the highest important impact on the eukaryotic picophytoplankton communities.