New keys to the past: Current and future DNA studies in coccolithophores
New keys to the past: Current and future DNA studies in coccolithophores
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DOI：
10.2113/50.suppl_1.45
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发表时间：
2004-01-01
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
Probert, I
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
de Vargas, C;Probert, I
尽管生物和化石具有巨大的生态学、生物地球化学和古生物学/古生态学的重要性，但对这类海洋原生生物的生物学知识存在着根本的差距。通过观察它们美丽骨骼的形态来研究它们的生态和进化的传统方法具有重要的局限性。简单的问题，例如：球石生物群最早出现在什么时候？现代海洋中有多少物种，过去的海洋中又有多少物种？这些物种之间以及它们所属的谱系之间的系统发育联系是什么？它们的生命周期是什么？它们是自养生物还是异养生物？由于缺乏关于其遗传型和表型(除了球虫)特征的信息，人们仍然知之甚少？使用群体遗传学、系统发育和基因组学方法分析球石菌体DNA内的突变可能有助于回答这些问题。在这里，我们综合了从仍然非常有限的数量的球石团的分子研究中得出的第一个结论，并强调了随后出现的一些最重要的问题。最后，我们提出了利用光学和遗传技术相结合的新方法来探索介于分子生物学、海洋学和古生物学之间的球石生物群的生态和进化。
Despite the immense ecological, biogeochemical and paleontological/paleoecological importance of living and fossil coccolithophores, fundamental gaps exist in the biological knowledge of this group of marine protists. The traditional approach of examining the morphology of their beautiful skeletons to study their ecology and evolution has important limitations. Simple questions, such as: When did the coccolithophores first appear? How many species exist in the contemporary ocean, and existed in past oceans? What are the phylogenetic links between these species and between the lineages to which they belong? What is their life-cycle, and are they autotrophic or heterotrophic organisms? Are still poorly understood due to a paucity of information on their genotypic and phenotypic (other than the coccoliths) characters?Analysis of mutations within the DNA of coccolithophores using population genetics, phylogenetic, and genomic approaches may help to answer these questions. Here we synthesize the first conclusions resulting from the still very limited number of molecular studies on coccolithophores and emphasize some of the most important questions that have consequently arisen. We finally propose new approaches using combined optic and genetic techniques to explore the ecology and evolution of coccolithophores at the boundary between molecular biology, oceanography, and paleontology.