Manon Viprey

TL;DR: Given the broad distribution of Syndiniales, this work indicates that parasitism may be a major force in ocean food webs, a force that is neglected in current conceptualizations of the marine carbon cycle.

TL;DR: The range of methods that can be used to assess small phytoplankton diversity are discussed, the species described to date are presented, the existing molecular data obtained on field populations are reviewed, and the promises offered by genomics are looked at.

TL;DR: This work investigated protists along an eastward transect across the sub-tropical gyre of the Indian Ocean (from South Africa to Australia) with a particular focus on picoeukaryotes, finding that prasinophytes were well represented at more coastal stations with the genus Micromonas reaching densities up to 750 cell mL.

TL;DR: A significant genetic diversity at the species and subspecies levels, notably among the genera Crustomastix, Dolichomastix and Mamiella, but also within Pyramimonas and Halosphaera (Pyramimonadales), has not previously been observed by cloning approaches, illustrating the power of using targeted primers for clone library construction.

TL;DR: Overall this strategy was quite successful since it allowed us to isolate a large number of picoplankton strains and failed in two respects, but future work in similar waters should probably combine flow cytometry sorting with culture media and cultivation approaches specifically developed for oligotrophic water species.