Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical bay, North Borneo, Malaysia as revealed by light microscopy and Next-Generation Sequencing

Brian Wei Khong Chong; Sandric Chee Yew Leong; Victor S. Kuwahara; Teruaki Yoshida

doi:10.1007/s13131-022-2036-y

Volume 41 Issue 12

Dec. 2022

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Brian Wei Khong Chong, Sandric Chee Yew Leong, Victor S. Kuwahara, Teruaki Yoshida. Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical bay, North Borneo, Malaysia as revealed by light microscopy and Next-Generation Sequencing[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2022, 41(12): 142-151. doi: 10.1007/s13131-022-2036-y

Citation:

Brian Wei Khong Chong, Sandric Chee Yew Leong, Victor S. Kuwahara, Teruaki Yoshida. Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical bay, North Borneo, Malaysia as revealed by light microscopy and Next-Generation Sequencing[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2022, 41(12): 142-151. doi: 10.1007/s13131-022-2036-y

Citation:

Brian Wei Khong Chong, Sandric Chee Yew Leong, Victor S. Kuwahara, Teruaki Yoshida. Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical bay, North Borneo, Malaysia as revealed by light microscopy and Next-Generation Sequencing[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2022, 41(12): 142-151. doi: 10.1007/s13131-022-2036-y

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Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical bay, North Borneo, Malaysia as revealed by light microscopy and Next-Generation Sequencing

doi: 10.1007/s13131-022-2036-y

1.
Unit for Harmful Algal Bloom Studies, Borneo Marine Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu 88400, Malaysia
2.
St. John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119227, Singapore
3.
Faculty of Education & Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Soka University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan

Funds: The Partial Funding from Sandric Leong through the National University of Singapore; the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia under contract No. FRGS/1/2017/WAB09/UMS/02/1.

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: teruaki.yoshida@ums.edu.my
Received Date: 2021-07-16
Accepted Date: 2022-01-13

Available Online: 2022-08-30

Publish Date: 2022-12-30

Abstract

Abstract

Assessments of phytoplankton diversity in Sabah waters, North Borneo, have primarily relied on morphology-based identification, which has inherent biases and can be time-consuming. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology has been shown to be capable of overcoming several limitations of morphology-based methods. Samples were collected from the Sepanggar Bay over the course of the year 2018 in different monsoon seasons. Morphology-based identification and NGS sequencing of the V8–V9 region of the 18S LSU rDNA were used to investigate the diversity of the phytoplankton community. Microscopy and NGS showed complementary results with more diatom taxa detected by microscopy whereas NGS detected smaller and rarer taxa. The harmful algal genera in the study site comprised of Skeletonema, Margalefidinium, Pyrodinium, Takayama, and Alexandrium as detected by NGS. This study showed that that an integrative approach of both morphological and molecular techniques could provide more comprehensive information about the phytoplankton community as the approach captured quantitative variability as well as the diversity of phytoplankton species.
- phytoplankton community,
- Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS),
- Sabah,
- South China Sea

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