Molecular Approaches to Planktonic Protistan Ecology

异养原生生物是水生食物链中的重要组成部分。这项研究计划的目标是开发一种新的方法来研究水环境中的原生动物生态学。目前检查这些组合的方法不能解决一些重要物种的营养状况，也不能促进对其时空变异性的研究。目前，在自然样品中鉴定其中许多物种的程序过于繁琐(如电子显微镜)或不切实际(如观察活体标本)，无法进行常规使用。该项目将开发一种新的方法，基于核糖体RNA基因的测序，构建荧光标记的寡核苷酸探针，用于鉴定混合组合中的原生生物。此外，它将建立一个框架，使其他调查人员可以在自己的工作中调整开发探测器的方法。

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.