Calanus sinicus Metagenome

Illumina sequencing technology was used to study the dietary composition of Calanus sinicus, a dominant member of the marine zooplankton in continental shelf waters around China, Japan and Korea. Adults and copepodites (C5) were collected from coastal seas in southeastern Hong Kong (4 adults + 4 C5) and northern Taiwan (8 adults + 8 C5). Variable regions of the 18S and 16S rRNA genes were amplified using DNA extracted from pooled gut contents to determine the composition of eukaryotes and prokaryotes in the diet. For each sample, an average of 113,677 sequences were obtained for the 18S gene and 175,961 sequences were obtained for the 16S gene.Our finding suggests that C. sinicus, which is widely considered to be herbivorous, can feed omnivorously on both phytoplankton and zooplankton.