Picobiliphytes: A Marine Picoplanktonic Algal Group with Unknown Affinities to Other Eukaryotes
Abstract
Environmental sequencing has revealed unimagined diversity among eukaryotic picoplankton. A distinct picoplanktonic algal group, initially detected from 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences, was hybridized with rRNA λ-targeted (rRNA-targeted) probes, detected by tyramide signal amplification-fluorescent in situ hybridization, and showed an organelle-like body with orange fluorescence indicative of phycobilins. Using this fluorescence signal, cells were sorted by flow cytometry and probed. Hybridized cells contained a 4´,6´-diamidino-2-phenylindole-stained organelle resembling a plastid with a nucleomorph. This suggests that they may be secondary endosymbiotic algae. Pending the isolation of living cells and their formal description, these algae have been termed picobiliphytes.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1136264
- Bibcode:
- 2007Sci...315..253N
- Keywords:
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- MICROBIO