Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 26 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5935, pp. 1724 - 1726
DOI: 10.1126/science.1172983
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Genomic Footprints of a Cryptic Plastid Endosymbiosis in Diatoms

Ahmed Moustafa,1,* Bánk Beszteri,2,* Uwe G. Maier,3 Chris Bowler,4,5 Klaus Valentin,2 Debashish Bhattacharya1,6,{dagger}

Diatoms and other chromalveolates are among the dominant phytoplankters in the world’s oceans. Endosymbiosis was essential to the success of chromalveolates, and it appears that the ancestral plastid in this group had a red algal origin via an ancient secondary endosymbiosis. However, recent analyses have turned up a handful of nuclear genes in chromalveolates that are of green algal derivation. Using a genome-wide approach to estimate the "green" contribution to diatoms, we identified >1700 green gene transfers, constituting 16% of the diatom nuclear coding potential. These genes were probably introduced into diatoms and other chromalveolates from a cryptic endosymbiont related to prasinophyte-like green algae. Chromalveolates appear to have recruited genes from the two major existing algal groups to forge a highly successful, species-rich protist lineage.

1 Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
2 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany.
3 Zellbiologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
4 CNRS UMR8186, Department of Biology, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
5 Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, I-80121 Naples, Italy.
6 Department of Biological Sciences and the Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: debashi-bhattacharya{at}uiowa.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Molecular Characterization of the Calvin Cycle Enzyme Phosphoribulokinase in the Stramenopile Alga Vaucheria litorea and the Plastid Hosting Mollusc Elysia chlorotica.
M. E. Rumpho, S. Pochareddy, J. M. Worful, E. J. Summer, D. Bhattacharya, K. N. Pelletreau, M. S. Tyler, J. Lee, J. R. Manhart, and K. M. Soule (2009)
Mol Plant
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Phagotrophy in the origins of photosynthesis in eukaryotes and as a complementary mode of nutrition in phototrophs: relation to Darwin's insectivorous plants.
J. A. Raven, J. Beardall, K. J. Flynn, and S. C. Maberly (2009)
J. Exp. Bot. 60, 3975-3987
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Seeing Green and Red in Diatom Genomes.
T. Dagan and W. Martin (2009)
Science 324, 1651-1652
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)