Easy Visualization of the Protist Oxyrrhis marina Grazing on a Live Fluorescently Labelled Heterotrophic Nanoflagellate
Loading...
Full text at PDC
Publication date
2008
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Citations
Exportar
Citation
Martín-Cereceda M, Williams RA, Novarino G. Easy visualization of the protist Oxyrrhis marina grazing on a live fluorescently labelled heterotrophic nanoflagellate. Current microbiology. 2008 Jul;57:45-50.
Abstract
Planktonic heterotrophic flagellates are ubiquitous eukaryotic microorganisms that play a crucial role in carbon and nutrient fluxes through pelagic food webs. Here we illustrate for the first time a grazing model of planktonic dinoflagellate, Oxyrrhis marina, on the heterotrophic nanoflagellate Goniomonas amphinema, using the DNAbinding fluorescent dye Hoechst 33342. A solution of 1 lg/mL of the fluorochrome allowed viability of the prey for at least 48 hours, provided low fluorescence quenching, and labelled the flagellate without masking the cytoplasm. After 2 hours of contact between the fluorescent prey and the predator, O. marina population had preyed on live G.amphinema at an ingestion rate of 2.2 prey Oxyrrhis-1 h-1.
Results show that this model is a time-effective and inexpensive approach for the direct observation of heterotrophic flagellate grazing. The fact that prey remain alive while predation occurs, as well as the low rate of quenching, could be of help in studying the fate of realtime trophic interactions between protists in microbial webs.