Editorial: ‘Disregarded’ microbial diversity and ecological potentials in aquatic systems: a new paradigm shift ahead

Abstract

The introduction of molecular methods to the study of prokaryotes in the mid-1980s (Pace et al., 1986), and their expansion to small eukaryotes in the early 2000s (Lopez-Garcia et al., 2001; Moon-van der Staay et al., 2001) have allowed investigation of uncultured microbes in natural environments, and have greatly increased our knowledge of microbial biodiversity. The resulting major methodological, conceptual and empirical advances in aquatic microbial ecology are arguably the greatest advances in environmental sciences. Recent developments in sequencing technology and the use of SSU rRNA hypervariable tag sequencing are beginning to reveal the huge dimension of the microbial diversity hidden in natural aquatic ecosystems