An INDEL genomic approach to explore population diversity of phytoplankton : \textit{Bathycoccus , a case study

Abstract Although metabarcoding has generated large dataset on world-wide phytoplankton species diversity, little is known about the intraspecies diversity underlying adaptation to environmental niches. To gain insight into population diversity, a novel INDEL based method was developed on Bathycoccus prasinos . Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing was first used to characterise structural variants (SV) among the genomes of Bathycoccus sampled from geographically distinct regions in the world ocean. Markers derived from INDEL were validated by PCR and sequencing in the world-wide strains. These markers were then used to genotype 55 Bathycoccus strains isolated during the winter bloom 2018-2019 in the bay of Banyuls-sur-Mer. With five markers, eight Multi Loci Genotypes (MLG) were determined, two of which represented 53% and 29% of the isolates. Physiological studies confirmed that isolates are phenotypically different, cells isolated in February growing better at low temperature than those isolated in December and January. When tested directly on environmental samples, two diversity markers showed a similar allele frequency in sea water as in individual Bathycoccus strains isolated at the same period. We conclude that these markers constitute a resource to identify the most abundant variant alleles in a given bloom. A follow-up on three consecutive blooms revealed differences in allele abundance during the course of a bloom, particularly at initiation and between years. This INDEL-based genotyping constitutes a new methodological approach that may be used to assess the population structure and diversity of other species.