Planktonic microbial eukaryotes in polar surface waters: recent advances in high-throughput sequencing

Area of Science:

• Marine microbiology
• Polar oceanography
• Eukaryotic diversity

Background:

• Marine microbial eukaryotes are crucial primary producers driving biogeochemical cycles.
• Advances in sequencing technology have unveiled significant, previously unrecognized microbial phylogenetic diversity.
• Understanding microbial diversity is key to comprehending polar marine ecosystems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of polar microbial eukaryote diversity.
• To highlight the application of high-throughput sequencing in polar marine environments.
• To identify future research directions for polar microbial ecology.

Main Methods:

• In-situ surveys using high-throughput sequencing.
• Analysis of the 18S rRNA gene for phylogenetic diversity assessment.
• 'Omic' approaches applied to polar marine samples.

Main Results:

• High-throughput sequencing has successfully enumerated and compared marine microbial diversity in polar regions.
• Numerous novel lineages of microbial eukaryotes have been identified in polar oceans.
• The study presents a current overview of polar microbial eukaryote diversity.

Conclusions:

• High-throughput sequencing is an essential tool for exploring novel microbial diversity in polar oceans.
• Further research is needed to investigate spatial variations in diversity between specific locations and across entire polar oceans.
• Bipolar comparisons of microbial eukaryote diversity and distribution are essential for a comprehensive understanding.