Eukaryotic communities of saline water bodies in Orenburg region (Russia) studied with 18S metagenomic sequencing on the Illumina platform (Miseq)

Eukaryotic communities have been studied in the saline water bodies of Orenburg region (Russia). Plankton and near-bottom water samples were taken in 2015-2016 from saline lakes and small ponds. They were filtered through mambranes with pores 0.22, 0.45 or 2.5-4.5 micrometers. Total DNA was extracted with phenol-chlorophorm method. 18S libraries were prepared with primers to V4 SSU region TARAeuk454FWD1 and TARAeukRev3 according to the Illumina protocol. The DNA libraries were sequenced on the Illumina platform (Miseq) with 2*300 bp kit. Bioinformatic treatment included merging of pare-end reads, filtration by length and quality, dereplication and clasterization into OTUs at 97% level.