Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters
Body size is an important ecological trait, but it has been poorly explored in microbial communities. Here, we examined the effect of cell size on coastal eukaryotic communities across a size continuum of 0.2–3 (pico-), 3–20 (nano-), and 20–200 μm (micro-sized), which were characterized via high-thr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.933256/full |
| _version_ | 1797995654097666048 |
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| author | Wenxue Wu Wenxue Wu Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu |
| author_facet | Wenxue Wu Wenxue Wu Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu |
| author_sort | Wenxue Wu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Body size is an important ecological trait, but it has been poorly explored in microbial communities. Here, we examined the effect of cell size on coastal eukaryotic communities across a size continuum of 0.2–3 (pico-), 3–20 (nano-), and 20–200 μm (micro-sized), which were characterized via high-throughput sequencing based on the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene. We found that, at the alpha diversity level, there was a decreasing trend across the pico-, nano-, and micro-sized eukaryotic communities regarding both amplicon sequence variant (ASV) richness and Shannon index. At the beta diversity level, the three categories were significantly different, and these were accompanied by a relatively high local contribution to beta diversity in contrasting freshwater and seawater locations. The community variations observed for the microbial eukaryotes could largely be explained by the environmental effects which decreased between the pico- (40.5%), nano- (37.3%), and micro-sized (27.3%) fractions. These environmental effects were mainly contributed by several ASV modules showing opposing responses to environmental conditions. This might partly indicate the coalescence of the freshwater and seawater groups of microbial eukaryotes. In summary, our findings suggest that the cell size of microbial eukaryotes is a phylogenetically conserved trait, which is tightly associated with biogeographic patterns. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:05:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-634e67e5c5ae46bba76eea0f16221311 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-7745 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:05:07Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-634e67e5c5ae46bba76eea0f162213112022-12-22T04:30:16ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452022-10-01910.3389/fmars.2022.933256933256Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal watersWenxue Wu0Wenxue Wu1Hongbin Liu2Hongbin Liu3State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou, ChinaSouthern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai, ChinaSouthern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai, ChinaDepartment of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaBody size is an important ecological trait, but it has been poorly explored in microbial communities. Here, we examined the effect of cell size on coastal eukaryotic communities across a size continuum of 0.2–3 (pico-), 3–20 (nano-), and 20–200 μm (micro-sized), which were characterized via high-throughput sequencing based on the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene. We found that, at the alpha diversity level, there was a decreasing trend across the pico-, nano-, and micro-sized eukaryotic communities regarding both amplicon sequence variant (ASV) richness and Shannon index. At the beta diversity level, the three categories were significantly different, and these were accompanied by a relatively high local contribution to beta diversity in contrasting freshwater and seawater locations. The community variations observed for the microbial eukaryotes could largely be explained by the environmental effects which decreased between the pico- (40.5%), nano- (37.3%), and micro-sized (27.3%) fractions. These environmental effects were mainly contributed by several ASV modules showing opposing responses to environmental conditions. This might partly indicate the coalescence of the freshwater and seawater groups of microbial eukaryotes. In summary, our findings suggest that the cell size of microbial eukaryotes is a phylogenetically conserved trait, which is tightly associated with biogeographic patterns.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.933256/fullmarine microbial eukaryote18S rRNA genesize continuumenvironmental effectPearl River Estuary |
| spellingShingle | Wenxue Wu Wenxue Wu Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters Frontiers in Marine Science marine microbial eukaryote 18S rRNA gene size continuum environmental effect Pearl River Estuary |
| title | Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| title_full | Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| title_fullStr | Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| title_short | Cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| title_sort | cell size is a key ecological trait associated with biogeographic patterns of microbial eukaryotes in coastal waters |
| topic | marine microbial eukaryote 18S rRNA gene size continuum environmental effect Pearl River Estuary |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.933256/full |
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