Molecular Approaches to Planktonic Protistan Ecology

异养原生生物已被证明是重要的 水生食物网的组成部分。 本研究的目的 该计划旨在开发一种新的研究方法， 水生环境原生生物生态学。 本 检查这些组合的方法无法解决 一些重要物种的营养状况，他们也没有 促进研究其空间和时间 可变性 许多这些物种的鉴定， 天然样品目前依赖于 太费力（例如电子显微镜）或不切实际 (e.g.活标本的观察）用于常规用途。 该项目将根据 核糖体RNA基因测序，构建 荧光标记的寡核苷酸探针 混合组合中原生生物的鉴定。此外，委员会认为， 它将建立一个框架， 可以调整用于开发探针的方法， 自己的作品。

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.