Insights into the harmful algal flora in northwestern Mediterranean coastal lagoons revealed by pyrosequencing of D1-D2 metabarcodes of the 28S rRNA gene

we investigated the genetic diversity of phytoplankton communities in six shallow lagoons located on the French coast of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea that represented a trophic gradient ranging from oligotrophic to hypereutrophic. The phytoplankton communities were sampled once a month from spring (May) to the beginning of autumn (September/early October) in 2012 and fractionated by size. Metabarcodes were generated from the D1-D2 region of the 28S rRNA and pyrosequenced using Roche 454 technology.