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Diversity and Ecology of Thraustochytrid Protists in the Marine Environment

  • Chapter
Marine Protists

Abstract

Thraustochytrids are heterotrophic estuarine/marine protists belonging to the class Labyrinthulomycetes within the stramenopile lineage. Thraustochytrid protists have been a neglected agent of the microbial food chain; however, they occur in detectable amounts in seawater, sediment, and algal and animal tissues. They have the ability to degrade a wide variety of organic substrates, including refractory substrates, by means of extracellular enzymes. Their wide distribution and degradation capability exhibit their ecological significance as decomposers. In particular, thraustochytrids may grow on terrestrial refractory matter in riverine input, and play a role in enhancing carbon cycling in estuarine and coastal areas. Additionally, they produce high amounts of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), which are essential fatty acids for marine animals. Furthermore, some members are known to be pathogens of marine mollusks. These distinctive characteristics mean that thraustochytrid protists play a number of important roles in marine environments.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Daiske Honda, Konan University, for his careful reading and constructive comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genetic Strains Research Center, National Institute of Genetics, 1111 Yata, Mishima, 411-8540, Japan

    Ryosuke Nakai

  2. Superlative Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8471, Japan

    Ryosuke Nakai

  3. Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-hiroshima, 739-8528, Japan

    Takeshi Naganuma

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Correspondence to Takeshi Naganuma .

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  1. Takehara Marine Science Station, Setouchi Field Science Center, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Takehara, Hiroshima, Japan

    Susumu Ohtsuka

  2. Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

    Toshinobu Suzaki

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Takeo Horiguchi

  4. Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

    Noritoshi Suzuki

  5. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que – CNRS, University Pierre and Marie Curie – UPMC Station Biologique de Roscoff, Roscoff, France

    Fabrice Not

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Nakai, R., Naganuma, T. (2015). Diversity and Ecology of Thraustochytrid Protists in the Marine Environment. In: Ohtsuka, S., Suzaki, T., Horiguchi, T., Suzuki, N., Not, F. (eds) Marine Protists. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55130-0_13

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