The red tide forming heterotrophic dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans is common in temperate to tropical waters around the world. Understanding the in situ prey of N. scintillans is essential for elucidating its role in marine microbial food webs. In this study, we applied two polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based cloning techniques, a predator-specific restriction enzyme, and a blocking primer. The PCR of nuclear 18S rDNA was performed on single N. scintillans cells that were collected from Ishinomaki Bay, Japan, in May 2018. The maximum detection rates of non-Noctiluca sequences were 56% using the restriction enzyme method and 87% with the blocking primer method, representing a broad taxonomic range of organisms, including diatom, dinoflagellate, bolidophyte, haptophyte, euglenophyte, green algae, golden algae, ciliate, heliozoa, copepod, brown seaweed, sponge, bivalve, and polychaete. The diverse DNA was probably ingested by N. scintillans directly or indirectly through secondary predation or ingestion of marine snow or detritus containing many organisms. The application of molecular approaches to various species may reveal undiscovered interactions within the phytoplankton community, including prey-predator, or symbiotic relationships.

形成异养二鞭毛藻夜光藻的赤潮在全球温带至热带水域都很常见。了解N. scintillans的原地猎物对于阐明其在海洋微生物食物网中的作用至关重要。在这项研究中，我们应用了两种基于聚合酶链反应（PCR）的克隆技术，捕食者特异性限制酶和封闭引物。核18S rDNA的PCR是在2018年5月从日本石卷湾收集的单个N. scintillans细胞上进行的。非夜蛾属的最大检出率使用限制性内切酶方法的序列为56％，使用封闭引物方法的序列为87％，代表了广泛的生物分类范围，包括硅藻，硅藻，鞭毛藻，触藻，裸藻，绿藻，金藻，纤毛虫，日生动物、,足类，棕色海藻，海绵，双壳类和多毛cha。N. scintillans可能直接或间接地通过二次捕食或摄食包含许多生物的海洋雪或碎屑来摄取了多种DNA 。分子方法对各种物种的应用可能揭示出浮游植物群落内部未发现的相互作用，包括猎物-捕食者或共生关系。