| As the third largest freshwater lake in China, Lake Taihu has suffered from heavy annual harmful cyanobacterial blooms, whose formations are closely related with bacteria associated with the algae. To investigate the relationship between the algae and their epibiotic bacteria, whole genome sequencing was performed on the algae, epibiotic bacteria and free-living bacteria that were collected in Taihu. We also performed the metagenomic analysis on the water samples collected in two different locations in Taihu. The metagenomic analysis shows the microbial composition difference between two samples. By comparing the genome of the sample epibiotic bacteria and the reference bacteria genome in the database, mutations were identified, which may be the potential reason for the sample bacteria’s adaptation to the host algae. Moreover, the algae were co-cultured with epibiotic bacteria and free-living bacteria respectively, and no significant growth promoting effect by the epibiotic bacteria on the algae was found. Further research should be completed to have a better understanding to the algal-bacterial relationship. |
