Collaborative: Putative Prochlorophyte Picoplankton: Ultra-stucture Pigments, and Molecular Systematics

原核生物，含有微微浮游植物的叶绿素b，在北太平洋和大西洋非常丰富。这些生物被认为是高等植物(绿藻、轮藻、苔藓和维管束植物)叶绿体祖先的自由生活有机体的后代。然而，PI检测到一种不寻常的叶绿素分子，它与高等植物现代叶绿体的叶绿素不对应。PIS建议收集、隔离、培养和分析这些生物，以完成系统发育分析。将使用16S rRNA基因来确定系统发育，并使用简约分析将它们与原核和真核分类群进行比较。

Prokaryotic, chlorophyll b containing picoplankton are very abundant in the north Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These organisms have been hypothesized to be descendants of the free-living organisms that are ancestors of the chloroplast of the higher plants (green algae, charaophytes, mosses, and vascular plants). However, the PIs have detected an unusual chlorophyll molecule that does not correspond to the chlorophylls of modern chloroplasts of the higher plants. The PIs propose to collect, isolate, culture, and analyze these organisms for the purposes of completing a phylogenetic analysis. Phylogeny will be determined using 16s rRNA genes and compare them with prokaryotic and eukaryotic taxa using parsimony analysis.