Applicability of massively parallel sequencing on monitoring harmful algae at Varna Bay in the Black Sea.

In this study the plankton diversity in 13 environmental samples from Varna Bay (in the western Black Sea) was analyzed using massively parallel sequencing (MPS). This preliminary study was undertaken to assess the potential of this technology for future implementation in monitoring programs in the Black Sea. Amplicon sequences of the 18S rRNA gene (V4-5 regions) were obtained using the Illumina MiSeq 250PE platform. A total of 1137 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained among which 242 OTUs with >0.990 BLAST top hit similarity (21.3% of all detected OTUs) closely related to sequences belonging to -protists. A large portion (175 OTUs=72.3%) was identified at the species levels, including species typical for the Bulgarian Black Sea plankton community, as well as many that haven't been reported earlier in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (124 OTUs=51.2%). Dinoflagellates were represented by the highest species number (77 OTUs comprising 31.8% of protist species), with dominant genera Gyrodinium and Heterocapsa. The present survey revealed the presence of 12 species listed as harmful, some of which have been previously overlooked, such as Cochlodinium polykrikoides, Karenia bicuneiformis, and Karlodinium veneficum. Species identification was possible for 10.3-36.0% of the detected OTUs in the six major supergroups. The frequency in Rhizaria was significantly lower than that in other major groups (p<0.05-0.01), implying difficulties in the classification from morphology-based observations. The metagenetic data had an insufficient resolution of the 18S rRNA gene for species identification in many genera. These issues may hamper the implementation of MPS-based surveys for plankton monitoring, especially for detecting harmful algal blooms (HAB). The sequencing technology is steadily improving and it is expected that sequence length and quality issues will be resolved in the near future. The ongoing efforts to register taxonomic information and quality controls in the international nucleotide sequence databases (INSDs) will be essential for improving taxonomic identification power.

Massively parallel sequencing-based survey of eukaryotic community structures in Hiroshima Bay and Ishigaki Island.

In this study, we compared the eukaryote biodiversity between Hiroshima Bay and Ishigaki Island in Japanese coastal waters by using the massively parallel sequencing (MPS)-based technique to collect preliminary data. The relative abundance of Alveolata was highest in both localities, and the second highest groups were Stramenopiles, Opisthokonta, or Hacrobia, which varied depending on the samples considered. For microalgal phyla, the relative abundance of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and the number of MPS were highest for Dinophyceae in both localities, followed by Bacillariophyceae in Hiroshima Bay, and by Bacillariophyceae or Chlorophyceae in Ishigaki Island. The number of detected OTUs in Hiroshima Bay and Ishigaki Island was 645 and 791, respectively, and 15.3% and 12.5% of the OTUs were common between the two localities. In the non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, the samples from the two localities were plotted in different positions. In the dendrogram developed using similarity indices, the samples were clustered into different nodes based on localities with high multiscale bootstrap values, reflecting geographic differences in biodiversity. Thus, we succeeded in demonstrating biodiversity differences between the two localities, although the read numbers of the MPSs were not high enough. The corresponding analysis showed a clear seasonal change in the biodiversity of Hiroshima Bay but it was not clear in Ishigaki Island. Thus, the MPS-based technique shows a great advantage of high performance by detecting several hundreds of OTUs from a single sample, strongly suggesting the effectiveness to apply this technique to routine monitoring programs.