Publications by authors named "Andres Boltovskoy"
Article Synopsis
- The study explores genetic diversity within five dinoflagellate species found in lakes and marine habitats, revealing significant variability in genetic makeup.
- Researchers analyzed 68 clonal strains using a genetic fingerprinting technique (AFLP) and found identical nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences among strains, indicating they belong to the same species.
- Results show that despite sharing the same ITS sequences, these protists exhibit a high level of genetic diversity, with multiple genetically distinct populations coexisting in the same water body.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers identified a recently diversified lineage of dinoflagellates that thrive in cold-water habitats across a wide range of salinities and geographic distances.
- They analyzed 30 strains and generated 55 new DNA sequences, finding similar nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) but high variability in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) among the isolates.
- Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these dinoflagellates form a monophyletic group related to toxic Pfiesteria species, suggesting their evolutionary diversification is influenced by the various environmental conditions they inhabit.
We have constructed extensive 18S-28S rDNA dinoflagellate phylogenies (>200 sequences for each marker) using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference to study the evolutionary relationships among marine and freshwater species (43 new sequences). Our results indicated that (a) marine and freshwater species are usually not closely related, (b) several freshwater species cluster into monophyletic groups, (c) most marine-freshwater transitions do not seem to have occurred recently and, (d) only a small fraction of the marine lineages seem to have colonized fresh waters. Thus, it becomes apparent that the marine-freshwater boundary has acted as a barrier during the evolutionary diversification of dinoflagellates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe agents driving the divergence and speciation of free-living microbial populations are still largely unknown. We investigated the dinoflagellate morphospecies Scrippsiella hangoei and Peridinium aciculiferum, which abound in the Baltic Sea and in northern temperate lakes, respectively. Electron microscopy analyses showed significant interspecific differences in the external cellular morphology, but a similar plate pattern in the characteristic dinoflagellate armor.
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