In the Grip of Algal Genomics

Abstract

Algae are dominant primary producers on the Earth and have a major impact on global productivity and biogeochemical cycling. There are still few algal genomes that have been completely characterized, and resources directed toward algal genomic sequencing are limited. However, it is also becoming evident that algae and prokaryotic picoplankton have a critical role in the fixation and sequestration of carbon, and so the interest in algal genomics is expanding. There are some algae for which full or near-full genome sequences have been secured; these genomes include those of the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae, the green algae or chlorophytes Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Volvox carteri, the marine picoeukaryote Ostreococcus tauri (two different strains of O. tauri have been sequenced), the diatoms Thalassiosira pseudonana and Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and the haptophyte Emiliania huxleyi. There is also a full sequence for the vestigal 'red' algal genome of the nucleomorph of the Cyptomonad Guillardia theta. In addition, numerous genomes of photosynthetic microbes, including marine Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus species have been sequenced. There have also been projects developed to define algal transcriptomes as determined by cDNA analysis, full genome sequences of numerous plastids, and the genomes of a variety of viruses that infect marine and freshwater algae. The recent efforts focused on acquiring and analyzing algal genome sequences have generated an influx of exciting data to a field that is in its infancy. In this review I discuss potential criteria for determining which organisms should be targeted for genome projects, successful forays into algal genomic sequencing, and some of the inferences generated from the analysis of the sequence information.

Sensing the dynamics of oxidative stress using enhanced absorption in protein-loaded random media

“…This study is important in itself for the following reason: The photosynthetic micro-alga C. reinhardtii is a representative primary producer at the origin of the food chain in aquatic systems and highly relevant from an ecotoxicology perspective. In addition to its environmental importance, the completion of the C. reinhardtii genome project revealed this microorganism as a useful model to investigate molecular cellular processes20. Cadmium is a widespread environmental toxicant known to cause adverse effects in algae, including growth and chlorophyll synthesis inhibition2122, increase in the superoxide dismutase activity23, phytochelatine induction21, and oxidative stress2324.…”

Gene Mining for Environmental Studies and Applications: Examples from Marine Organisms

“…This brought large-scale sequencing into the reach of marine biologists, and has led to the rapid expansion of genomic data for marine organisms. As of today, representative genome sequences are available for several groups of algae, including diatoms and haptophytes as well as red, green, and brown algae (Grossman, 2007;Cock et al, 2010;Coll en et al, 2013) and numerous marine bacteria (Gl€ ockner et al, 2003). This wealth of genomic data not only helps to understand the biology and evolution of these organisms, but also facilitates their use for biotechnological purposes.…”

Portable oxidative stress sensor: Dynamic and non-invasive measurements of extracellular H 2 O 2 released by algae

“…It is a primary producer at the base of the food chain and thus highly relevant from an ecotoxicological perspective (Grossman, 2007). To induce oxidative stress, algae were either treated with functionalized CdSe/ZnS core shell Qdots that are widely used as fluorescent labels (Dabbousi et al, 1997) or with TiO 2 nanoparticles, which are common constituents of everyday consumer products (Park et al, 2008).…”