Phytoplankton Gene Expression
John H. Paul
from: Microalgae: Current Research and Applications (Edited by: Maria-Nefeli Tsaloglou). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 27-44.
Abstract
Phytoplankton photosynthesis accounts for 50% of the primary production on our planet and forms the base of marine food webs. Phytoplankton can form toxic blooms, take up and release greenhouse gasses, and be responsible for fueling the biological pump. The availability of genomes of several marine phytoplankton including diatoms and expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries of several dinoflagellates have opened the door for understanding gene expression and regulation in this globally important group of photoautotrophs. This review documents early work in phytoplankton gene expression through current studies in marine phytoplanktonic transcriptomes and proteomes. All informatics analyses are hampered by the lack of reliable gene annotations. Progress is being made in gene function identification through the use of endogenous gene silencing mechanisms. Understanding the control of gene networks is in its infancy but promises to be a fertile area of research for the next generation of phytoplankton ocean scientists read more ...
