IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE FOR AUTECOLOGICAL STUDY OF A UNICELLULAR BLUEGREEN ALGA12

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Abstract
Fluorescent antibody (FA) preparations were developed and tested as an approach to recognition and enumeration of a specific unicellular bluegreen alga in a natural ecosystem. Antibodies made against an axenic culture of Synechococcus cedrorum Näg. gave a high agglutination titer and an excellent homologous staining reaction. Antibody specificity was tested with 28 heterologous cultures of bluegreen algae, known cultures of chemoautotrophic bacteria and heterotrophic bacteria, and randomly selected unknown bacteria from soil, sewage and aquatic habitats. FA staining of bluegreen algae was restricted to S. cedrorum and six heterologous isolates, all indistinguishable microscopically from S. cedrorum. The ability to enumerate S. cedrorum FA‐reactive cells in nature was demonstrated with data on population densities for samples taken from water columns of stratified holomictic lakes in northcentral Minnesota.