Molecular Approaches to Planktonic Protistan Ecology

异养原生生物已被证明是水生食物网的重要组成部分。这项研究计划的目标是发展一种新的方法来研究原生生物在水生环境中的生态学。目前的方法来检查这些组合不能解决一些重要的物种的营养状况，也没有促进他们的空间和时间变化的研究。在自然样品中的许多这些物种的鉴定目前依赖于过于费力（例如电子显微镜）或不切实际（例如观察活标本）的程序，用于常规使用。本计画将发展一种新的方法，以核糖体RNA基因的序列分析为基础，建构萤光标记寡核苷酸探针，以鉴定混合生物群中的原生生物。此外，它还将建立一个框架，其他研究人员可以通过这个框架在自己的工作中采用开发探测器的方法。

Heterotrophic protista have been shown to be important components in aquatic food webs. The goal of this research program is to develop a new methodology for studying protistan ecology in aquatic environments. Present methodologies for examining these assemblages cannot resolve the trophic status of some important species, nor do they facilitate studies of their spatial and temporal variability. The identification of many of these species in natural samples is presently dependent on procedures that are too laborious (e.g. electron microscopy) or unrealistic (e.g. the observation of live specimens) for routine use. This project will develop a new methodology, based on the sequencing of ribosomal RNA genes, to construct fluorescently-labeled oligonucleotide probes for the identification of protists in mixed assemblages. Moreover, it will establish a framework by which other investigators may adapt the methods for the development of probes in their own work.