Sandy Beach Microekaryotes Metabarcoding
Sandy marine beaches are dynamic ecosystems where terrestrial and marine organisms coexist, resulting in diverse communities where microeukaryotes (i.e. protists, microalgae and meiofauna) are key ecosystem drivers. Thus, understanding their diversity patterns and response towards stressors is essential for elucidating ecological processes. However, information on the response of these communities to disturbances remains limited. Herein, microeukaryotic diversity in a sandy beach in Acapulco, Guerrero, was analyzed via ITS1 metabarcoding to describe changes in the community structure after hurricane Otis. Fourteen sand samples were collected at a distance of 5 m, along a transect from the supralittoral zone to the low tide zone. Direct DNA extraction of 0.5 sand grams from each sample was obtained using the FastDNA SPIN Kit for soil (MP Biomedicals, Santa Ana, CA, USA). The DNA concentration and purity were quantified using a NanoDrop microvolume spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific (Wilmington, DE, USA), and sequenced with the Illumina MiSeq (2 x 300) to generate 50,000 reads per sample in paired-end format at the Genomic Services Laboratory (LANGEBIO, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico). The ITS1 region (rDNA) was amplified using the primer set ITS1F (5-CTTGGTCATTTAGAGGAAGTAA-3) (Gardes and Bruns, 1993) and ITS2 (5- GCTGCGTTCTTCATCGATGC-3) (White et al., 1990).