[A-OS17] Marine microbial ecology

[AOS17-06] Unveiling the diversity and ecological roles of ascetosporean parasites, one of the most poorly-understood protist groups

*Akinori Yabuki^1,2, Toyonobu Fujii^3,1, Minoru Ikeda^1,3 (1.Advanced Institute for Marine Ecosystem Change, 2.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3.Tohoku University)

Keywords:Protist, Parasite, Ascetosporea, Copepoda, Onagawa-bay

Ascetosporea is a group of parasitic protists belonging to the supergroup Rhizaria, many of which parasitize marine invertebrates. Approximately 50 species have been described to date and several members cause serious damages to marine resources, such as oysters and crabs. As a result, they are attracting attention for control. In addition, concerns have been raised that their negative effects may be exacerbated by environmental changes, such as global warming. The recent studies conducted with environmental DNAs showed that many members remain to be found and described in marine environments, indicating that little is yet understood about their diversity and ecological roles. As a better understanding of their biology will not only provide insights into their ecological significance but also help to evaluate marine resilience against environmental changes, the researches to identify these poorly understood ascetosporeans are expected. Since the method to establish the cell culture of ascetospores had been absent for a long period, it was recently overcome and their cell cultures now can be established and utilized in the researches. In this talk or poster, we present new ascetosporeans that were recently discovered from Onagawa-bay Miyagi and established as the clonal cultures. As we also conducted metabarcoding analyses on ascetpsopreans as well as copepods, which are the possible host organisms of ascetosporeans, their possible relationship will also be discussed in the talk or poster.