rRNA PROBES FOR IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MARINE PHYTOPLANKTON: THEIR POTENTIAL APPLICATION FOR DNA MICROCHIPS

• Published in: Journal of Phycology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2001
• Subjects: Alfred Wegener Institute
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-8817.2001.jpy37303-49.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1529-8817.2001.jpy37303-49.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1529-8817.2001.jpy37303-49.x

Groben R., Lange, M. & Medlin, L. K. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, D‐27570 Bremerhaven, Germany A fast and reliable identification of nano‐ and picoplankton by light microscopy is often difficult because of the lack of usable morphological characteristics, whereas electron microscopy and biochemical methods are very time consuming. Identification of toxic algae also requires a great deal of taxonomic experrtise so that false positives are not recorded. One solution is to use taxon specific rRNA probes. For this purpose we designed probes for phytoplankton taxa, including toxic algae. These probes were either labelled with Digoxigenin (DIG) and used in DNA dot blot experiments, or labelled with fluorochromes and used in whole‐cell hybridisations with fluorescence microscopy or flow cytometric detection. Specific probes could be used over a broad taxonomic range from higher groups (i.e. the class of dinoflagellates) to species level (i.e. Prorocentrum lima). These probes were be used in the EU MAST project AIMS for the development of an automated identification system for marine phytoplankton in combination with flow cytometry and artificial neural networks (ANNs), in the EU MAST DETAL and in the German national project (TEPS) for the development of an early warning system for harmful algal blooms. Results using Digoxigenin (DIG)‐labelled probes on picoplankton samples taken from several water bodies indicate that hierarchial re‐probing of spotted samples can be achieved and this suggests that probes can be adapted to DNA microchips. Preliminary field results for a hand‐held DNA microchip reader are presented. This work was supported by the German BMBF TEPS 03F0161 and the EU AIMS MAS3‐CT97‐0080 and EU DETAL Q5RS‐2000‐30778 projects.