Detcharoen, Matsapume (2015) Genetic diversity of Labyrinthula spp. in seagrass Zostera marina beds in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. (Master thesis), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany, 42 pp.

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Abstract

Seagrass wasting disease in the 1930s resulted in mass decline of seagrass Zostera marina in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. Labyrinthula zosterae is the potential pathogen of this disease that can lead to seagrass bed loss. This organism infects eelgrass’ leaf. Previous studies to identify the diversity of Labyrinthula spp. were based on culture method. This present study is the first study to use leaf samples for Labyrinthula molecular identification and explores diversity of the genus Labyrinthula. I investigated samples from six locations by cloning and Sanger sequencing of a 290 bp partial sequence of the 18S rDNA. Blast search against GenBank revealed that most sequences are 77-100% similar to L. zosterae, while some sequences from Wackerballig and Sandspollen were 84-94% matched Labyrinthula spp. None of that putative Labyrinthula spp. was grouped with known sequences from the database. There were seven OTUs generated. DNA extraction gave similar results for both tested extraction kits, a plant and a tissue kits. Nonetheless, the plant kit has more advantage due to its lower cost and time effort. In conclusion, this study shows undiscovered Labyrinthula spp. in the investigated eelgrass populations, second it shows that the method used in this study is suitable for further applications.

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