Bacterioplankton community composition in 67 Finnish lakes differs according to trophic status

The bacterioplankton composition of 67 Finnish lakes was characterised by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments, and subsequent sequence analyses of major fragments. The DGGE patterns grouped as a function of environmental characteristics describing the trophic status of the lakes, such as total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), TN:TP, chlorophyll a, Secchi depth and water colour. Most sequences retrieved represented Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria, while those representing Alpha-and Gamma-proteobacteria, Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria were less frequent. The presence of several sequences could be linked to the trophic status of the lakes, while that of others was more common and thus unrelated to the trophic status. These results suggest that individual responses towards environmental factors may occur among the bacterioplankton at the level of phyla as well as phylotypes.