Re-examination of the Algal Class Chrysophyceae Using Gene Sequences and Electron Microscopy

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9419498 Andersen The world's freshwater and marine algae are an important group of photosynthetic organisms, usually studied botanically with plants and fungi. In the oceans they provide the primary food for marine animals. The Chrysophyceae are one group of algae characterized by their golden color (due to photosynthetic pigments and storage compounds); despite their simple external morphology, they are diverse physiologically and ultrastructurally. Over the last three decades, active oceanographic exploration followed by laboratory studies in electron microscopy and molecular biology have shown that numerous unusual chrysophytes were misclassified or simply missed in previous studies. Furthermore, the original classification of chrysophytes, reflecting a need for a simple identification scheme, placed emphasis on flagella and other external cell wall characters observable with light microscopy, features that are now suspected to represent instances of convergent evolution in adapting to open-ocean conditions. Dr. Robert Andersen of the Bigelow Laboratory and colleagues will study new collections of chrysophytes from Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian ocean expeditions, with emphasis on electron microscopy of fine-scale internal features and on gene sequencing. DNA data will be accumulated from both nuclear and chloroplast genomes of individual strains. A modern and reliable systematic classification of the Chrysophyceae will benefit those working in areas of marine ecology, biodiversity, aquaculture, and marine biotechnology. ??