RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The windblown: possible explanations for dinophyte DNA in forest soils
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.08.07.242388
DO 10.1101/2020.08.07.242388
A1 Gottschling, Marc
A1 Czech, Lucas
A1 Mahé, Frédéric
A1 Adl, Sina
A1 Dunthorn, Micah
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/10/2020.08.07.242388.abstract
AB Dinophytes are widely distributed in marine- and fresh-waters, but have yet to be conclusively documented in terrestrial environments. Here we evaluated the presence of these protists from an environmental DNA metabarcoding dataset of Neotropical rainforest soils. Using a phylogenetic placement approach with a reference alignment and tree, we showed that the numerous sequencing reads that were assigned to the dinophytes did not associate with taxonomy, environmental preference, nutritional mode, or dormancy. All the dinophytes in the soils are most likely windblown dispersal units of aquatic species, and are not biologically active residents of terrestrial environments.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.