The taxonomy and evolution of dinoflagellate communities in saline lakes

Potential candidates are the dinoflagellates present in lakes that have been isolated from the sea in the geologically recent past. However, due to their small size, the only way to distinguish these species, has been on microscopic morphologic differences.

However, with the development of molecular techniques it has now become possible to look at genetic differences between different species, populations, or even individuals. Previous work has shown that the ribosomal DNA is a suitable molecular marker to study phylogenetic differences in a number of species. Specific work with dinoflagellates has further shown that dinoflagellate population of the same species or species complex can be differentiated based on the genomic sequence of large subunit ribosomal DNA, and that populations of the same geographic origin cluster together.