Ulva prolifera green tides in the Yellow Sea of China in the past 3 yr are among the largest macroalgal blooms ever recorded. Satellite images, as well as wind and current patterns, provide a clear picture of the formation of these green tides; however, their place of origin remains unclear. Terrestrial investigation along the coastline of the Jiangsu Province and two shipboard surveys in the Yellow Sea in 2009 showed that filamentous Ulvaceae algae were prevalent in various environments in Jiangsu Province including floating rafts for Porphyra cultivation, landbased bivalve culturing ponds, estuaries, embankments, intertidal stones, wharfs, and hard muddy coasts. Vegetative fragments in sediment samples were found in both shipboard surveys during the bloom and postbloom periods, and all of the samples were U. prolifera. Phylogenetic analysis of 5S spacer sequences showed that the green tide in the Yellow Sea was not of terrestrial origin. However, settled vegetative fragments of U. prolifera were an important seed source for the successive and more serious green tide blooms.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are important components of infant and adult nutrition because they serve as structural elements of cell membranes. Fatty acid desaturases are responsible for the insertion of double bonds into pre-formed fatty acid chains in reactions that require oxygen and reducing equivalents. In this study, the genome-wide characterization of the fatty acid desaturases from seven eukaryotic photosynthetic microalgae was undertaken according to the conserved histidine-rich motifs and phylogenetic profiles. Analysis of these genomes provided insight into the origin and evolution of the pathway of fatty acid biosynthesis in eukaryotic plants. In addition, the candidate enzyme from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with the highest similarity to the microsomal delta 12 desaturase of Chlorella vulgaris was isolated, and its function was verified by heterologous expression in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
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