Structure and Evolution of Diatom Nuclear Genes and Genomes

Phaeodactylum tricornutum: An established model species for diatom molecular research and an emerging chassis for algal synthetic biology

“…Because of this progress, a large community of scientists joined efforts to sequence and annotate the P. tricornutum nuclear (27.4 Mbp), plastid (117 kbp), and mitochondrial (77.3 kbp) genomes (Pt1 ecotype CCAP1055/1, also named Pt1 8.6/CCMP2561/CCMP632; Bowler et al., 2008; Figure 1). The comparative analysis of the P. tricornutum genome with that of the centric species Thalassiosira pseudonana published 2 years earlier (Armbrust et al., 2004), and subsequently with other diatoms, highlighted a peculiar gene repertoire, including, in the ~12,000 P. tricornutum predicted genes, almost an equivalent number of animal‐like and plant‐like genes, a large fraction of core diatom specific (16%) and of species‐specific (26%) genes, genes of bacterial origin (4.1%; Rastogi et al., 2018), and strong molecular divergences due to rapid rate of diversification (Mock et al., 2022).…”

“…syste msbio logy. net/ diato m-portal/ ); 22 Nymark et al (2016), 23 Rastogi et al (2018), 24 Serif et al (2018), 25 published 2 years earlier (Armbrust et al, 2004), and subsequently with other diatoms, highlighted a peculiar gene repertoire, including, in the ~12,000 P. tricornutum predicted genes, almost an equivalent number of animal-like and plant-like genes, a large fraction of core diatom specific (16%) and of species-specific (26%) genes, genes of bacterial origin (4.1%; Rastogi et al, 2018), and strong molecular divergences due to rapid rate of diversification (Mock et al, 2022).…”

Ribosome Profiling in the Model Diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana

“…Diatoms are unicellular, eukaryotic microalgae, which comprise over 100,000 species throughout all aquatic environments. Their mosaic genomes have been shaped by secondary endosymbiosis and horizontal gene transfer, providing them with diverse regulatory mechanisms to adapt their protein synthesis in response to the changing environmental conditions (Mock et al., 2022). Due to their key role as primary producers in aquatic systems and their biotechnological potential, gene regulatory mechanisms in diatoms have been extensively studied using transcriptomic and proteomic data (e.g., Dong et al., 2016; Mock et al., 2008).…”