Abstract
We have studied the eukaryotic plankton species diversity to compare the community structure of fresh and brackish waters in the lower reaches of the Nakdong River using metagenomic methods. We constructed 18S rDNA clone libraries of total DNAs extracted from environmental water samples collected at Mulgeum (MG100929, fresh) and Eulsukdo bridge (ES, brackish). Through the steps of colony PCR, PCR-RFLP, sequencing and similarity analysis, we discovered the diverse species composition of eukaryotic plankton. Total 338 clones (170 at MG100929 and 168 at ES) were analyzed, and then we found 74 phylotypes (49 for MG100929 and 25 for ES). From the phylogenetic analysis, we confirmed various eukaryotic plankton of broad range of taxonomic groups, including Stramenopiles, Cryptophyta, Viridiplantae, Alveolata, Rhizaria, Metazoa, and Fungi. We also found several unreported species in Korea and candidates of new taxonomic entities at levels higher than genus. Especially, the cryptic species diversity including unreported phylotypes of Pirsonia (Stramenopiles) and Perkinsea (Alveolata) suggests that the molecular monitoring method can produce new informative biological data in monitoring the changes in the Nakdong River Mouth ecosystem.
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