• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.567-577
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• 2020

The infection of marine diatom Coscinodiscus wailesii by a parasitic protist from the Yongho Bay of Busan, Korea was observed during the diatom bloom events in 2017 through 2018. The morphological and molecular features suggested that the parasitic nanoflagellate Pirsonia diadema was responsible for the infection. During the study period, the parasite prevalence ranged from 0.3% to 3.3%, and infected C. wailesii cells were observed only at surface seawater temperatures ranging between 10.9 and 19.9℃, although the host population appeared at temperatures above 25℃. The parasite and host system was successfully established as cultures. Using the cultures, we determined the morphological features over the infection cycle, parasite generation time, parasite prevalence as a function of inoculum size, and zoospore infectivity and survival time. The diatom C. wailesii was readily infected by the parasite P. diadema, with a parasite prevalence reaching up to 100% and a zoospore to host inoculum ratio above 20:1. The survival and infectivity of the parasite zoospores decreased with age. While the zoospores could survive up to 88 hours, they quickly lost their ability to infect after 48 hours. These results could lead to a better understanding of the biology and ecology of the parasitoid infecting the giant-sized diatoms in coastal waters.

• ALGAE
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2017

During a sampling at Nokdong harbor, southern coast of Korea in January 2017, the marine diatom Coscinodiscus wailesii cells infected by a novel parasitoid nanoflagellate were observed. While the development process of the trophosomes of the parasitoid was more similar to that of Pseudopirsonia mucosa, division pattern of the auxosomes was similar to that of Pirsonia species. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from 18S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the parasitoid infecting C. wailesii fell within the cercozoan groups and branched as a sister lineage of the clade consisting of Pseudopirsonia mucosa and the undescribed Cercomonas sp. SIC7235, with the sequence dissimilarity of 7.3% with Pseudopirsonia mucosa. All of these developmental and molecular characteristics suggest that the parasitoid nanoflagellate infecting the diatom C. wailesii is a new Pseudopirsonia species.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.160-180
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• 2012

We have studied the eukaryotic plankton species diversity to compare the community structure of fresh and brackish waters in the lower reaches of the Nakdong River using metagenomic methods. We constructed 18S rDNA clone libraries of total DNAs extracted from environmental water samples collected at Mulgeum (MG100929, fresh) and Eulsukdo bridge (ES, brackish). Through the steps of colony PCR, PCR-RFLP, sequencing and similarity analysis, we discovered the diverse species composition of eukaryotic plankton. Total 338 clones (170 at MG100929 and 168 at ES) were analyzed, and then we found 74 phylotypes (49 for MG100929 and 25 for ES). From the phylogenetic analysis, we confirmed various eukaryotic plankton of broad range of taxonomic groups, including Stramenopiles, Cryptophyta, Viridiplantae, Alveolata, Rhizaria, Metazoa, and Fungi. We also found several unreported species in Korea and candidates of new taxonomic entities at levels higher than genus. Especially, the cryptic species diversity including unreported phylotypes of Pirsonia (Stramenopiles) and Perkinsea (Alveolata) suggests that the molecular monitoring method can produce new informative biological data in monitoring the changes in the Nakdong River Mouth ecosystem.