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Summary: Algal Genomics: Exploring the
Imprint of Endosymbiosis
The nuclear genomes of photosynthetic eukaryotes are littered with
genes derived from the cyanobacterial progenitor of modern-day
plastids. A genomic analysis of Cyanophora paradoxa -- a deeply
diverged unicellular alga -- suggests that the abundance and functional
diversity of nucleus-encoded genes of cyanobacterial origin differs in
plants and algae.
John M. Archibald
In the billion odd years since their
cyanobacterial predecessors first
inhabited the cytoplasm of a
non-photosynthetic eukaryote [1],
the plastids (chloroplasts) of plants
and algae have been radically
transformed. The bulk of this
transformation has come in the
form of genomic `downsizing' --
the elimination of superfluous
genes and the transfer of essential
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