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Diversity and Distribution of Marine Microbial Eukaryotes

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Encyclopedia of Metagenomics

Marine microbial eukaryotes (MME) are morphologically, phylogenetically, and functionally diverse. The term protist is often used but not a valid taxonomic classification (Adl et al. 2005, 2007), and evolutionary relationships among MME at the highest taxonomic ranks remain controversial.

Functionally, they span all trophic levels, with phototrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic taxa, where mixotrophic taxa are able to use both photosynthesis and heterotrophy as sources for carbon and energy. Taxonomically MME are found among all major branches of the eukaryotic tree of life, with the exception, at least up until now, of the Excavata (Adl et al. 2012). This taxonomic and functional diversity is also manifest in morphological diversity over several microscopic scales, depending on the group.

Unassignable taxa: Taxa that do not fit within descriptions based on standard taxonomy. In the case of gene sequences, this occurs when the sequence in question shows little homology with other...

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  1. Department of Biology, Laval University, G1V 0A6, Québec, QC, Canada

    Connie Lovejoy

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  1. Connie Lovejoy
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Correspondence to Connie Lovejoy .

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  1. J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Karen E. Nelson

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Lovejoy, C. (2013). Diversity and Distribution of Marine Microbial Eukaryotes. In: Nelson, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_768-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_768-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6418-1

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