Green evolution and dynamic adaptations revealed by genomes of the marine picoeukaryotes Micromonas

The photosynthetic picoeukaryote Micromonas thrives from tropical to polar marine ecosystems and belongs to an anciently diverged sister clade to land plants.We sequenced genomes from two Micromonas isolates (22 Mb, CCMP1545; 21 Mb, RCC299) and the results improve understanding of their ecology and green-lineageevolution. Despite high 18S rDNA sequence identity, only 90% of their predicted genes were shared. Novel intronic repeat elements in CCMP1545, otherwise foundonly in metagenomic data, and unique riboswitch arrangements emphasized their independent evolutionary paths. Phylogenomic profiles revealed putative ancestralfeatures, but also indicated selection/acquisition processes are actively shaping a `unique' gene pool in each differently than `core' genes. Currentclimate-change trajectories are predicted to produce conditions favoring picophytoplankton, making Micromonas potential indicators of biological change inocean ecosystems.

Worden, A.Z., J-Lee, H., Mock, T., Rouzé, P., Simmons, M.P., Aerts, A., Allen, A., Cuvelier, M.L., Derelle, E., Everett, M.V., Foulon, E., Grimwood, J., Gundlach, H., Henrissat, B., Napoli, C., McDonald, S.M., Parker, M.S., Rombauts, S., Salamov, A., Von, P. Dasso, Badger, J., Coutinho, P.M., Demir, E., Dubchak, I., Gentemann, C., Eikrem, W., Gready, J.E., John, U., Lanier, W., Lindquist, E., Lucas, S., Mayer, K., Moreau, H., Not, F., Otillar, R., Panaud, O., Pangilinan, J., Paulsen, I., Piegu, B., Poliakov, A., Robbens, S., Schmutz, J., Toulza, E., Wyss, T., Zelensky, A., Zhou, K., Armbrust, V., Bhattacharya, D., Goodenough, U.W., Van de Peer, Y., Grigoriev, I. (2009) Green evolution and dynamic adaptations revealed by genomes of the marine picoeukaryotes Micromonas. Science 324(5924):268-72.

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