Investigating adaptive strategies of high and low nucleic acid prokaryotes
A research team conducted a 73-day large-volume Aquatron macrocosm experiment, utilizing flow cytometry and dilution experiments to thoroughly investigate the temporal changes and influencing factors in the abundance, growth rate, and mortality of high nucleic acid (HNA) and low nucleic acid (LNA) prokaryotes, and the resulting carbon flow dynamics within the microbial loop. They explored the adaptive strategies of these microbial subgroups in response to declining resource availability and selective grazing by protozoa.