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PHYTOPLANKTON GENOME ONLY SEQUENCED IN 2013. A multinational 7 year effort yielded the genomic sequence of one important phytoplankton, in 2013. "A pan-genome has previously been seen only in some marine bacteria, organisms lacking enclosed nuclei. Ehux is a eukaryote—an organism with an enclosed nucleus, like all plants and animals. This is the first description of a pan-genome in eukaryotic marine algae."" " http://lnkd.in/dtBTw89 View in LinkedIn

GENOMIC INFORMATION IS KEY. "If we know the genome, we can find out a lot about what the organism is capable of and how it reacts to changes, for example, in the course of climate change", says algae researcher Klaus Valentin from the AWI. Due to its genetic flexibility, the microalga can adapt to almost all marine conditions and can survive in almost all the Earth's oceans."" " https://www.helmholtz.de/en/artikel/genome-analysis-adaptability-of-haptophyte-uncovered-1676/ View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON VIRUSES ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD and not part of the phytoplankton databanks of abundance. "Although the importance of viruses is presently recognized, it is apparent that many aspects of viral-mediated mortality of phytoplankton are still poorly understood. It is imperative that future research addresses the mechanisms that regulate virus infectivity, host resistance, genotype richness, abundance, and the fate of viruses over time and space."" " http://lnkd.in/dYKVHkM View in LinkedIn

SCIENTISTS HOPFUL ABOUT ADAPTIVE CAPACITY of phytoplankton in face of environmental change. "We suggest that contemporary evolution could help to maintain the functionality of microbial processes at the base of marine food webs in the face of global change." Worth remembering that marine phytoplankton started life in caustic ocean habitats and evolved dramatically over millennia. But is that enough today?" " http://lnkd.in/dGEF2dh View in LinkedIn

WIDE GENETIC VARIABILITY IN PHYTOPLANKTON. "In 2003, Prochlorococcus became one of the first marine microbes to have its entire set of genes sequenced. It’s an impressively small genome for the most abundant photosynthetic organism on the planet, for the source of the oxygen filling every fifth breath you take. . While individual Prochlorococcus genomes share a core of about 1,200 genes, hundreds of other genes vary wildly from strain to strain.”" " http://lnkd.in/dqcfrWg View in LinkedIn

SOME PHYTOPLANKTON THRIVE IN ACID WATER. "Unlike coccolithophores, who experience a drop in fitness under ocean acidification conditions, other taxa measured thus far are initially insensitive or increase their growth rates in response to CO2 enrichment. This includes diatoms, dinoflagellates and chlorophytes."" " http://lnkd.in/d7FVnnn View in LinkedIn

OCEANS ARE HUGE INTERACTIVE GENE POOLS which constantly recombine between viruses and phytoplankton making the focus on species rather less relevant." ""The team's studies are showing that all Prochlorococcus strains "are very closely related, yet they display quite an array of physiologies, and astounding genetic diversity on top of that. It's becoming clear, too, that this genetic diversity is at the heart of the extraordinary stability of Prochlorococcus in the oceans, which maintains steady population sizes over vast regions" of the sea."" " http://lnkd.in/dX7bkKE View in LinkedIn

DIFFERENT PHYTOPLANKTON WILL EVOLVE UNIQUELY. "Given their phylogenetic breadth, different phytoplankton taxa will likely have different responses to climate change. For example, it has been suggested that decreased ocean pH may hinder the ability of coccolithophores to generate calcareous plates, potentially influencing their impact on the biological pump."" " http://lnkd.in/d7FVnnn View in LinkedIn

VIRUS AND PHYTOPLANKTON INTIMACY. "Mixing of genetic pools between viruses and their hosts by horizontal transfer or through symbiotic association might have played significant roles in the evolution of viruses as well as of their hosts. The “eukaryogenesis” theory proposes that viruses might have been at the origin of the nucleus and that viruses have provided several “viral” features to primitive cells, which are now seen as properties of modern eukaryotic cells."" " http://lnkd.in/dWGhytf View in LinkedIn

MARINE MICROBIAL ECOSYSTEM IS KEY TO SURVIVAL. "Microbial interactions are at the core of species success or failure. These interactions constitute an important component of microbial communities, where synergism, competition or grazing among species can drive the diversity of an ecosystem."" " http://lnkd.in/dpEAGD3 View in LinkedIn