But here’s the bombshell: In the same culture we found 2 giant viruses,Tyrannovirus reginensis GV1 & 2 belonging to a viral genus known only from metagenomes. “Unculturable” protists & their giant viruses can be recovered by novel cultivation methods + genomics. Cultures matter!
We are happy to share our work on the first isolate of the CRY1a lineage,which we baptized Tyrannomonas regina. It is a small and voracious predator (≈3–5 µm)🦖with the smallest genome among cryptomonads (69 Mb).
The CRY1a lineage is ubiquitous and abundant across global freshwaters. Our CARD-FISH surveys across 84 lakes and 3 lagoons show that CRY1a often makes up >10% of all heterotrophic nanoflagellates.
#FreshwaterEcology #ProtistDiversity
Heterotrophic nanoflagellates in lakes ingest 10–20 bacteria/hour, removing roughly 1/3 of all prokaryotes daily but most remain uncultured and unsequenced. We devised a new cultivation strategy to describe one such predator here 🦖🔬
t.co/TU1fq4eVg2 #MicrobialEcology