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Hidden diversity among aquatic heterotrophic flagellates: ecological potentials of zoosporic fungi

  • DISREGARDED DIVERSITY AND ECOLOGICAL POTENTIALS
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Abstract

Since the emergence of the ‘microbial loop’ concept, heterotrophic flagellates have received particular attention as grazers in aquatic ecosystems. These microbes have historically been regarded incorrectly as a homogeneous group of bacterivorous protists in aquatic systems. More recently, environmental rDNA surveys of small heterotrophic flagellates in the pelagic zone of freshwater ecosystems have provided new insights. (i) The dominant phyla found by molecular studies differed significantly from those known from morphological studies with the light microscope, (ii) the retrieved phylotypes generally belong to well-established eukaryotic clades, but there is a very large diversity within these clades and (iii) a substantial part of the retrieved sequences cannot be assigned to bacterivorous but can be assigned instead to parasitic and saprophytic organisms, such as zoosporic true fungi (chytrids), fungus-like organisms (stramenopiles), or virulent alveolate parasites (Perkinsozoa and Amoebophrya sp.). All these microorganisms are able to produce small zoospores to assure dispersal in water during their life-cycles. Based on the existing literature on true fungi and fungus-like organisms, and on the more recently published eukaryotic rDNA environmental studies and morphological observations, we conclude that previously overlooked microbial diversity and related ecological potentials require intensive investigation (i) for an improved understanding of the roles of heterotrophic flagellates in pelagic ecosystems and (ii) to properly integrate the concept of ‘the microbial loop’ into modern pelagic microbial ecology.

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Acknowledgements

EL was supported by a PhD Fellowship from the French Ministère de la Recherche et de la Technologie (MRT). This study was supported by a grant from the French ANR Programme Blanc DREP (Diversité et Rôles des Eumycètes dans le Pélagos, Cordinator TSN). The content was part of EL PhD dissertation and was presented as oral contribution to the topical session # 011 (Missing, Rare and Wrongfully Regarded Microbial Diversity in Aquatic Systems) of ASLO (Advancing the Science of Limnology and Oceanography) 2009 aquatic science meeting held at Nice, France (http://aslo.org/nice2009/topical_sessions.html).

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  1. Emilie Lefèvre

    Present address: Biology Department, The University of Alabama, 300 Hackberry Lane, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35401, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LMGE, Laboratoire Microorganismes: Génome & Environnement, UMR CNRS 6023, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II, 63177, Aubière Cedex, France

    Télesphore Sime-Ngando & Emilie Lefèvre

  2. School of Biological Sciences A12, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Frank H. Gleason

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  1. Télesphore Sime-Ngando
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Correspondence to Télesphore Sime-Ngando.

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Guest editors: T. Sime-Ngando & N. Niquil / Disregarded Microbial Diversity and Ecological Potentials in Aquatic Systems

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Sime-Ngando, T., Lefèvre, E. & Gleason, F.H. Hidden diversity among aquatic heterotrophic flagellates: ecological potentials of zoosporic fungi. Hydrobiologia 659, 5–22 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0230-y

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