title: Phylogenetic and functional diversity of bacterioplankton during Alexandrium spp. blooms.
abstract: The phylogenetic and functional diversity of the bacterioplankton assemblage associated with blooms of toxic Alexandrium spp. was studied in three harbours of the NW Mediterranean. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and DNA sequence analysis revealed the presence of a bacterium within the Roseobacter clade related to the presence of Alexandrium cells. Phylogenetic diversity was affected by the presence of Alexandrium spp., geographic situation and seasonality. In contrast, functional diversity, assessed with Biolog plates, was clearly affected by seasonality, but not by the presence of Alexandrium, indicating that the presence of the bacterium associated with the blooms was not enough to modify the metabolic pattern of the bacterioplankton assemblage.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Biologia Marina i Oceanografia, Institut de Ciències del Mar-CMIMA CSIC, P. Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain. msala@icm.csic.es
authors.forename: Maria Montserrat
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Balagué
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pedrós-Alió
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Massana
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Felipe
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arin
authors.forename: Hassina
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Illoul
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estrada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010933:Plankton / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology