The Complete Genome Sequence of the Glaucophyte Alga Cyanophora paradoxa

光合作用是如何在真核生物中建立起来的？为了深入了解地球进化的这一基本步骤，爱荷华大学的Debashish Bhattacharya博士和SymBio公司的Jeffrey Boore博士获得了一笔赠款，以确定单细胞藻藻（Cyanophora paradoxa） 1.4亿碱基对核基因组序列的高覆盖范围。蓝藻是光合作用真核生物（绿藻）中仍然缺乏完整基因组序列的一员。产生所有质体（如叶绿体）的单一蓝藻原生内共生发生在蓝藻、其他藻类和植物的共同祖先中。这是地球历史上一个关键而古老的（约15亿年前）事件，为现代陆地生态系统奠定了基础。质体建立的关键步骤是将内共生基因转移到“宿主”细胞核。然而，目前尚不清楚这种大规模的转移是否仅限于严格参与质体代谢的基因，或者宿主是否从捕获的基因组中获益，通过从蓝藻中招募基因来探索其他新功能。蓝藻基因组序列将使科学家能够在一个相对“简单”的藻类模型中严格检验这一想法。除了对了解内共生的贡献之外，藻藻基因组序列还将提供无数其他见解，包括鉴定藻类和植物共享的一组核心基因，可以详细研究这些基因，以了解植物特异性特征的起源。此外，蓝藻基因组对指导植物和其他原生生物基因组的注释具有不可估量的价值。虽然这是一个基础科学项目，但蓝藻项目有可能加速对原生生物及其基因组的各级教育和兴趣。研究小组将把这项研究的结果纳入几项推广工作。高通量基因组学原理将被纳入爱荷华大学开设的几门课程，以及美国国家科学基金会资助的本科生暑期“比较进化基因组学研讨会”，研究结果将发表在micro*scope网站http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php的微生物生命教育资源网页上，两名研究生和几名本科生将在爱荷华大学接受培训。PI每年将通过爱荷华州的AGEP项目招收一名或多名少数族裔暑期学生。

How was photosynthesis established in eukaryotes? To gain insights into this fundamental step in the evolution of our planet, a grant has been awarded to Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya at the University of Iowa and Dr. Jeffrey Boore at SymBio Corporation to determine to high coverage the 140 million base pair nuclear genome sequence of the unicellular alga Cyanophora paradoxa. Cyanophora is a member of the remaining group of photosynthetic eukaryotes (Glaucophyta) that still lacks a complete genome sequence. The single cyanobacterial primary endosymbiosis that gave rise to all plastids (e.g., chloroplasts) occurred in the common ancestor of Cyanophora, other algae, and plants. This was a pivotal and ancient (~1.5 billion years ago) event in the Earth's history that laid the foundation for modern terrestrial ecosystems. A critical step in plastid establishment was the transfer of endosymbiont genes to the "host" nucleus. It is unclear however whether this massive transfer was limited to genes strictly involved in plastid metabolism or whether the host profited from the captured genome to explore other novel functions via recruitment of genes from the cyanobacterium. The Cyanophora genome sequence will enable scientists to rigorously test this idea in a relatively "simple" algal model. Beyond its contribution to understanding endosymbiosis, the Cyanophora genome sequence will allow countless other insights which include identifying a set of core genes shared by algae and plants that can be studied in detail to understand the origin of plant-specific characters. In addition the Cyanophora genome will be invaluable for guiding the annotation of the genomes of plants and other protists.Although this is a basic science project, the Cyanophora project has the potential to accelerate education and interest at all levels in protists and their genomes. The research team will incorporate the findings of this study into several outreach efforts. The principles of high throughput genomics will be incorporated into several courses offered at the University of Iowa as well as in the NSF-funded undergraduate summer "Workshop on Comparative Evolutionary Genomics", the findings of the study will be published in the Microbial Life Educational Resources web page at the micro*scope web site http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php, two graduate students and several undergraduates will be trained at the University of Iowa, and the PI will recruit one or more minority summer student per year through the AGEP program at Iowa.