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Metagenome of microorganisms associated with the toxic Cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa analyzed using the 454 sequencing platform

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Abstract

In this study, the 454 pyrosequencing technology was used to analyze the DNA of the Microcystis aeruginosa symbiosis system from cyanobacterial algal blooms in Taihu Lake, China. We generated 183 228 reads with an average length of 248 bp. Running the 454 assembly algorithm over our sequences yielded 22 239 significant contigs. After excluding the M. aeruginosa sequences, we obtained 1 322 assembled contigs longer than 1 000 bp. Taxonomic analysis indicated that four kingdoms were represented in the community: Archaea (n = 9; 0.01%), Bacteria (n = 98 921; 99.6%), Eukaryota (n = 373; 3.7%), and Viruses (n = 18; 0.02%). The bacterial sequences were predominantly Alphaproteobacteria (n = 41 805; 83.3%), Betaproteobacteria (n = 5 254; 10.5%) and Gammaproteobacteria (n = 1 180; 2.4%). Gene annotations and assignment of COG (clusters of orthologous groups) functional categories indicate that a large number of the predicted genes are involved in metabolic, genetic, and environmental information processes. Our results demonstrate the extraordinary diversity of a microbial community in an ectosymbiotic system and further establish the tremendous utility of pyrosequencing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Nan Li  (李楠), Lei Zhang  (张蕾) & Song Qin  (秦松)

  2. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Nan Li  (李楠), Lei Zhang  (张蕾) & Fuchao Li  (李富超)

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Nan Li  (李楠)

  4. South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangdong, 510301, China

    Lei Zhang  (张蕾)

  5. Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Yuezhu Wang  (王玥珠), Yongqiang Zhu  (朱永强), Hui Kang  (康慧) & Shengyue Wang  (王升跃)

Authors
  1. Nan Li  (李楠)
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  2. Lei Zhang  (张蕾)
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  3. Fuchao Li  (李富超)
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  4. Yuezhu Wang  (王玥珠)
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  5. Yongqiang Zhu  (朱永强)
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  6. Hui Kang  (康慧)
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  7. Shengyue Wang  (王升跃)
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  8. Song Qin  (秦松)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Song Qin  (秦松).

Additional information

Supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KSCX2-YW-G-073)

LI Nan and ZHANG Lei contributed equally to this work.

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Li, N., Zhang, L., Li, F. et al. Metagenome of microorganisms associated with the toxic Cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa analyzed using the 454 sequencing platform. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 29, 505–513 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-011-0056-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-011-0056-0

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