Since then, results from YAP-TEAD Inhibitor 1 in vivo several studies suggest that planctomycetes favor a biofilm

lifestyle, adhering to surfaces in aquatic environments including marine sediments [6] (among others), diatom cells [7], seaweeds and other aquatic macrophytes [8, 9]. Rhodopirellula baltica is an Idasanutlin in vitro extensively studied marine particle-attached planctomycete. Its genome sequence reveals a large number of genes involved in the breakdown of sulfated polysaccharides [10], a carbon source found in marine photosynthetic organisms such as microalgae and seaweeds, who’s detrital material is thought to generate marine snow. Such genes are also encountered in other planctomycete genomes and planctomycete-derived metagenomic fosmid libraries see more from seawater collected in upwelling zones [11]. The overrepresentation of such genes, and the association of R. baltica and other planctomycetes with marine snow has led to the hypothesis that heterotrophic planctomycetes are specialized degraders of sulfated polymeric carbon, for example in marine snow [10, 11]. Given the significance of marine snow as part of the so-called “”biological pump”" of carbon in the oceans [12, 13], planctomycetes may thereby be playing a crucial role in global carbon turnover [11]. Still, quantitative data on the distribution of planctomycetes in the marine environment and elsewhere is still scarce,

and very little Chlormezanone is known about the yet uncultured planctomycete lineages that are assumed to carry out the bulk of these globally critical processes. Kelps are large brown seaweeds of the order Laminariales. They often form dense stands along rocky coastlines that are referred to as kelp forests. Kelp forest ecosystems are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world [14]. Their immense importance for coastal biodiversity, productivity

and human economy has long been recognized in temperate regions of the world and is only beginning to be understood in the tropics [15]. Kelp forests along the Atlantic coasts of Europe are dominated by the large kelp Laminaria hyperborea. Bacteria associated to kelp are believed to be important in the carbon and nitrogen turnover in kelp forest food webs [16, 17], but it is still not known what types of bacteria are involved in these processes. Recently, the seasonal dynamics of the cell density and bacterial community composition in biofilms on L. hyperborea were addressed. In this study, planctomycetes were frequently detected throughout the year but their abundance and phylogenetic relationships were not considered [18]. In order to address the importance of this group of bacteria in kelp forests, we therefore aimed to take an in-depth look at the abundance and phylogenetic diversity of planctomycete communities inhabiting L. hyperborea surface biofilms.