Phagotrophic protists are key players in aquatic food webs. Although sequencing-based studies have revealed their enormous diversity, ecological information on in situ abundance, feeding modes, grazing preferences, and growth rates of specific lineages can be reliably obtained only using microscopy-based molecular methods, such as Catalyzed Reporter Deposition-Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (CARD-FISH). CARD-FISH is commonly applied to study prokaryotes, but less so to microbial eukaryotes. Application of this technique revealed that Paraphysomonas or Spumella-like chrysophytes, considered to be among the most prominent members of protistan communities in pelagic environments, are omnipresent but actually less abundant than expected, in contrast to little known groups such as heterotrophic cryptophyte lineages (e.g., CRY1), cercozoans, katablepharids, or the MAST lineages. Combination of CARD-FISH with tracer techniques and application of double CARD-FISH allow visualization of food vacuole contents of specific flagellate groups, thus considerably challenging our current, simplistic view that they are predominantly bacterivores. Experimental manipulations with natural communities revealed that larger flagellates are actually omnivores ingesting both prokaryotes and other protists. These new findings justify our proposition of an updated model of microbial food webs in pelagic environments, reflecting more authentically the complex trophic interactions and specific roles of flagellated protists, with inclusion of at least two additional trophic levels in the nanoplankton size fraction. Moreover, we provide a detailed CARD-FISH protocol for protists, exemplified on mixo- and heterotrophic nanoplanktonic flagellates, together with tips on probe design, a troubleshooting guide addressing most frequent obstacles, and an exhaustive list of published probes targeting protists.

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Hydrobiology České Budějovice Czechia

Centre ALGATECH Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Třeboň Czechia

Department of Fisheries Oceanography and Marine Ecology National Marine Fisheries Research Institute Gdynia Poland

Science for Life Laboratory Department of Gene Technology School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry Biotechnology and Health KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm Sweden

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Integrating depth-dependent protist dynamics and microbial interactions in spring succession of a freshwater reservoir

Global freshwater distribution of Telonemia protists

High-resolution metagenomic reconstruction of the freshwater spring bloom

Cryptic and ubiquitous aplastidic cryptophytes are key freshwater flagellated bacterivores

FISHing for ciliates: Catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization for the detection of planktonic freshwater ciliates

CARD-FISH and prey tracer techniques reveal the role of overlooked flagellate groups as major bacterivores in freshwater hypertrophic shallow lakes