Stability of bacterial and viral community compositions in Danish coastal waters as depicted by DNA fingerprinting techniques

Abstract

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 27:219-232 (2002) - doi:10.3354/ame027219 Stability of bacterial and viral community compositions in Danish coastal waters as depicted by DNA fingerprinting techniques Lasse Riemann*, Mathias Middelboe Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, 3000 Helsingør, Denmark *Present address: Freshwater Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, 51 Helsingørsgade, 3400 Hillerød, Denmark. E-mail: lriemann@vip.cybercity.dk ABSTRACT: Variations in bacterial and viral community compositions were examined over spatial scales ranging from centimeters to kilometers and over temporal scales of days to months in Danish coastal environments by means of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), respectively. Despite several-fold differences in bacterial activity and chlorophyll a, we found only a few differences in microbial community composition among samples from 30 cm intervals in a 3 m vertical profile across a narrow pycnocline during a subsurface coccolithophorid bloom in the southern Kattegat. Likewise, only a few changes in community composition were observed during a 2 mo spring bloom period in the eutrophic Roskilde Fjord. However, more pronounced differences were observed among samples from 5 stations on a transect crossing the Skagerrak-Kattegat front where 2 water masses with different physico-chemical properties meet. The 2 water masses harbored distinct bacterial and viral communities, and a gradual mixing of the microbial communities was observed across the front. Our study indicates stability of microbial community compositions in Danish coastal waters and suggests that changes in microbial abundance and activity were not associated with successions in bacterial and viral communities discernible by the applied DGGE and PFGE protocols. KEY WORDS: Bacteria · Virus · Fingerprinting · Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis · DGGE · Pulsed field gel electrophoresis · PFGE Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 27, No. 3. Online publication date: April 16, 2002 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.