• Andrey O. Plotnikov
  • Alexander S. Balkin
  • Natalia E. Gogoleva
  • Olivia Lanzoni
  • Yuri A. Khlopko
  • Sergey V. Cherkasov
  • Alexey A. Potekhin

Ciliates are the largest group of ubiquitous aquatic bacterivorous protists, and many species are easily cultivated. However, only few studies reported prokaryotic communities naturally associated with ciliate cells. Herein, we analyzed the microbiome composition of several strains of Paramecium (Ciliophora) originating from different locations and belonging to two morpho-species by high-throughput sequencing (HTS) of the 16S rRNA gene. Possible reasons of HTS results bias were addressed comparing DNA libraries obtained using different primers and different number of ciliate cells. Microbiomes associated with ciliates and their environments were always significantly different by prokaryotic taxonomic composition and bacterial richness. There were also pronounced differences between Paramecium strains. Interestingly, potentially pathogenic bacteria were revealed in Paramecium microbiomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)286-298
Number of pages13
JournalMicrobial Ecology
Volume78
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Aug 2019

    Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Microbiology
  • Ecology

    Research areas

  • Bacterial communities, Ciliates, Human pathogens and commensals, Metabarcoding, Microbiomes, Single cell sequencing, BACTERIAL COMMUNITY, PREDATION, YANTAIENSIS, WATER-COLUMN, SINGLE-CELL, MYCOBACTERIA, AMEBAS, PROTOZOA, PATHOGENS, PROKARYOTES

ID: 39764609