Deep-sea eukaryotic diversity

Unicellular eukaryotes (protists) form a major link from bacteria and primary production to higher trophic levels in the sunlit ocean and their role on the deep seafloor is only fragmentarily understood, despite their potential key function for global carbon cycling. DNA was extracted from deep-sea sediment samples in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and submitted to high-throughput-sequencing (V9 region of the hypervariable 18S rDNA).