Archaeaplankton in the Columbia River, its estuary and the adjacent coastal ocean, USA

PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes from particle-attached and free-living Archaea in the Columbia River estuary, particle-attached,Archaea in the river, and Archaea in the adjacent coastal ocean were cloned, and 43 partial sequence s were determined. There was a high diversity of Archaea in the estuary, es pecially among the particle-attached Archaea. with representatives from fou r major phylogenetic clusters. Eighteen of 21 estuarine clones were closely related to dunes From the river and the coastal ocean or to clusters of ma rine and soil clones identified in other studies. This contrasts with a sim ilar study of the estuarine bacterial community that found 62% of bacterial 16S rRNA clones to be unique to the estuary. Archaea in the estuary were p rimarily allochthonous, and therefore, unlike the bacteria, probably do not form a native estuarine community. (C) 2000 Federation of European Microbi ological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.