The goal of this project is to identify the sources of novel diatom traits, which have contributed to their extraordinary metabolic and species-level diversity. Some traits are encoded by genes acquired from distantly related bacteria, an entirely different kingdom in the tree of life. Other genes appear to have been generated by processes acting within diatom genomes. This project will generate genome-scale data for 250 phylogenetically disparate diatom species. These data will be used to: (1) infer evolutionary relationships, (2) identify the sources - whether intrinsic or extrinsic - of new genes, and (3) correlate the pattern and timing of gene acquisitions with the origins of novel traits.
This study would result in the training of a post-doctoral researcher, undergraduates and graduate students. With an estimated 200,000 species, diatoms are one of the most diverse groups of marine and freshwater phytoplankton. These microscopic "plants" play a major role in the global cycling of carbon and oxygen, producing the oxygen for one of every five human breaths. They manufacture the fatty acids that make their way up the food chain, eventually into fish, which humans harvest for fish oils. Diatoms possess a broad range of novel traits that, together, have facilitated their rise to prominence in the world's oceans. Ultimately, this project will reveal how nature has assembled the mosaic genomes of one of the world's most diverse and ecologically important lineages.
