Closely related Prochlorococcus genotypes show remarkably different depth distributions in two oceanic regions as revealed by in situ hybridization using 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotides

• Published in: Microbiology
• Main Authors: West, N. J., Schonhuber, W. A., Fuller, N. J., Amann, R. I., Rippka, R., Post, A. F., Scanlan, D. J.
• Other Authors: University of Warwick Coventry, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Physiologie microbienne, Institut Pasteur Paris (IP)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), The Interuniversity Institute for marine Science in Eilat, This work was supported in part by NERC grant GST/02/1081 (PRIME thematic programme), NERC grant GR3/11606 and by the EU grants MAS3-CT97-0128 (PROMOLEC) and EVK3-CT-1999-00021 (PICODIV). W. A. Schönhuber, R. I. Amann and R. Rippka were supported in part by contract BIO4-CT96-0256 (BASIC) of the European programme BIOTECH (Life Sciences and Technologies, Biotechnology Programme, 1994–1998). R. Rippka also acknowledges support by the Institut Pasteur and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, URA 2172). W. A. Schönhuber held a Marie Curie Fellowship from the EC (contract no. EVK1-CT1999-50002) with the Institut Pasteur as host institution. This is PRIME contribution number 126. D. J. Scanlan is a Royal Society University Research Fellow.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2001
• Subjects: cyanobacteria; Red Sea; oligonucleotide probes; 16S rRNA; TSA; MESH: Colony Count; Microbial; MESH: Cyanobacteria/classification; MESH: DNA; Ribosomal/analysis; MESH: Ecology; MESH: Flow Cytometry; MESH: Genes; rRNA; MESH: Genotype; MESH: In Situ Hybridization; Fluorescence; MESH: Molecular Sequence Data; MESH: Oligonucleotide Probes/genetics; MESH: Phylogeny; MESH: RNA; Ribosomal; 16S/genetics; MESH: Seawater/microbiology; MESH: Sequence Analysis; DNA; MESH: Cyanobacteria/genetics; MESH: Cyanobacteria/physiology; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDV.MP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01651552; https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-147-7-1731

International audience An in situ hybridization method was applied to the identification of marine cyanobacteria assignable to the genus Prochlorococcus using horseradish-peroxidase-labelled 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes in combination with tyramide signal amplification (TSA). With this method very bright signals were obtained, in contrast to hybridizations with oligonucleotides monolabelled with fluorochromes, which failed to give positive signals. Genotype-specific oligonucleotides for high light (HL)- and low light (LL)-adapted members of this genus were identified by 16S rRNA sequence analyses and their specificities confirmed in whole-cell hybridizations with cultured strains of Prochlorococcus marinus Chisholm et al., 1992 R8 , Prochlorococcus sp. and Synechococcus sp. In situ hybridization of these genotype-specific probes to field samples from stratified water bodies collected in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea allowed a rapid assessment of the abundance and spatial distribution of HL- and LL-adapted Prochlorococcus. In both oceanic regions the LL-adapted Prochlorococcus populations were localized in deeper water whereas the HL-adapted Prochlorococcus populations were not only distinct in each region but also exhibited strikingly different depth distributions, HLI being confined to shallow water in the North Atlantic, in contrast to HLII, which was present throughout the water column in the Red Sea.