To study diversity of phytoplankton community in aquatic ecosystems, I attempted terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) approach using the 18s ribosomal RNA gene extracted from culture strains and environmental samples from two reservoirs. T-RF length database was constructed by twelve algal strains obtained from three different algae culture collections. Most of different species were classified using combinational interpretations of forward and reverse terminal restriction fragment (T-RF) length data. From two reservoirs, the Sang-chun reservoir and the Seo-ho reservoir, 30 different phylotypes were identified by obtained DNA sequences and T-RF lengths from clone libraries. Additionally, fluorescence intensities and biovolumes from manual counting for Cryptomonas genera showed a significant linear relationship (r2=0.865). Although I could not identify the whole phytoplankton communities, principle component analysis of T-RFLP profiles discriminated phytoplankton communities between reservoirs and of different sites at different seasons showing a possibility of T-RFLP analysis as a monitoring method to detect changes of phytoplankton community.
