Mt. Suzuki et al., Quantitative mapping of bacterioplankton populations in seawater: field tests across an upwelling plume in Monterey Bay, AQUAT MIC E, 24(2), 2001, pp. 117-127
Few methods are available for quantifying specific prokaryotic taxa in mari
ne plankton samples. In this study, we report a novel sampling and analysis
strategy that circumvents some of the difficulties associated with current
methods. This new approach allows for increased spatial, temporal and phyl
ogenetic resolution over what has been achievable in routine bacterioplankt
on surveys. Picoplankton from small volume samples (30 mi) were collected o
n polysulfone filters and DNA was extracted with a commercially available D
NA purification kit. The contribution of different bacterioplankton members
at the group and subgroup levels was quantified by 5' nuclease assays. Per
centages of small subunit (SSU) rDNAs from SAR11, SAR86, Roseobacter, Cytop
haga and Synechococcus clades in DNA extracted from small samples were comp
ared with SSU rDNA in DNA samples extracted from 6 to 91 seawater. Only sma
ll differences were observed between the methods. The approach was also tes
ted by estimating gene copy numbers in a seawater sample spiked with varyin
g numbers of cells from a cultivated marine Roseobacter strain. Finally we
measured SSU rDNAs from the same groups of marine bacterioplankton in sampl
es from a rapid survey of an upwelling plume in Monterey Bay, California, U
SA. A strong negative correlation between the percentage of Cytophagales an
d recently upwelled water, and an overlap between higher SAR86 percentages
and a chlorophyll a concentration peak was found. The results confirm that
rapid mapping of specific bacterioplankton groups is achievable using small
samples and 5' nuclease assays.