AUTHOR=Brink Annica Marie , Kremp Anke , Gorokhova Elena 

TITLE=Quantitative real-time PCR assays for species-specific detection and quantification of Baltic Sea spring bloom dinoflagellates

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1421101

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1421101

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>In the Baltic Sea, the dinoflagellates <italic>Apocalathium malmogiense</italic>, <italic>Biecheleria baltica</italic>, and <italic>Gymnodinium corollarium</italic> are important contributors to the spring bloom. However, their relative contribution to the bloom community cannot be unambiguously determined by conventional light microscopy due to a lack of resolution of distinctive morphological features of the three species. Here, we describe a molecular approach based on a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) primer and probe system, targeting the ITS1 and ITS2 regions of the rRNA gene for all three species and enabling their quantification. The specificity of the method was demonstrated using monocultures of <italic>A. malmogiense</italic>, <italic>B. baltica</italic>, <italic>G. corollarium</italic> as well as three other dinoflagellate species co-occurring in the Baltic Sea during spring and validated using field-collected phytoplankton samples.</p>