Protistology 9 (3/4) 127–132 (2015) |
Current state and perspectives of single-cell studies in ecophysiology of protists |
Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia Summary Protists (eukaryotic microbes) play a tremendous role in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, because their physiological activity is important for biogeochemical cycling of elements. For a long time studies of microbial physiology have been carried out with the focus on populations. However, nowadays development and application of new techniques lead to rapid accumulation of data obtained at the single-cell level. Single-cell approaches have already brought a lot of invaluable information about prokaryotic microbes, whereas protists are still less studied in this respect. In this paper, we review the range of single-cell studies in the field of ecophysiology of eukaryotic microbes published to the date and discuss future prospects of individual-based protist research.
Key words: ecophysiology, protists, single-cell techniques
Address for correspondence: Olga Matantseva. Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tikhoretsky Ave., 4, 194064 St. Petersburg, Russia; e-mail: olga.matantseva@gmail.com |
| Load PDF | Back to Contents | |