A cellular approach combining Direct Viable Counting and Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization using a one-step multiple-probe technique and Solid Phase Cytometry (DVC-FISH-SPC) was developed to monitor total viable vibrios and cover the detection of a large diversity of vibrios. FISH combined three probes in the same assay and targeted sequences located at different positions on the 16S rRNA of Vibrio and Aliivibrio members. We performed a 10-month in situ study to investigate the weekly dynamics of viable vibrios relative to culturable counts at two northwestern Mediterranean coastal sites, and identified the key physicochemical factors for their occurrence in water using a multivariate analysis. Total viable and culturable cell counts showed the same temporal pattern during the warmer season, whereas the ratios between both methods were inverted during the colder seasons (<15°C), indicating that some of the vibrio community had entered into a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state. We confirmed that Seawater Surface Temperature explained 51–62% of the total variance in culturable counts, and also showed that the occurrence of viable vibrios is controlled by two variables, pheopigment (15%) and phosphate (12%) concentrations, suggesting that other unidentified factors play a role in maintaining viability.
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