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Title: Identification of the meiotic toolkit in diatoms and exploration of meiosis-specific SPO11 and RAD51 homologs in the sexual species Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata and Seminavis robusta

Journal Article · · BMC Genomics
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [2];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [1]
  1. Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples (Italy)
  2. Ghent Univ., Ghent (Belgium); Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, Ghent (Belgium)
  3. Pontificia Univ. Catolica de Chile, Santiago (Chile); Sorbonne Univ., Roscoff (France)
  4. The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), Norwich (United Kingdom)
  5. Ghent Univ., Ghent (Belgium)

Sexual reproduction is an obligate phase in the life cycle of most eukaryotes. Meiosis varies among organisms, which is reflected by the variability of the gene set associated to the process. Diatoms are unicellular organisms that belong to the stramenopile clade and have unique life cycles that can include a sexual phase. The exploration of five diatom genomes and one diatom transcriptome led to the identification of 42 genes potentially involved in meiosis. While these include the majority of known meiosis-related genes, several meiosis-specific genes, including DMC1, could not be identified. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyses supported gene identification and revealed ancestral loss and recent expansion in the RAD51 family in diatoms. The two sexual species Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata and Seminavis robusta were used to explore the expression of meiosis-related genes: RAD21, SPO11-2, RAD51-A, RAD51-B and RAD51-C were upregulated during meiosis, whereas other paralogs in these families showed no differential expression patterns, suggesting that they may play a role during vegetative divisions. An almost identical toolkit is shared among Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries and Fragilariopsis cylindrus, as well as two species for which sex has not been observed, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana, suggesting that these two may retain a facultative sexual phase. Lastly, our results reveal the conserved meiotic toolkit in six diatom species and indicate that Stramenopiles share major modifications of canonical meiosis processes ancestral to eukaryotes, with important divergences in each Kingdom.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1241144
Journal Information:
BMC Genomics, Vol. 16, Issue 1; ISSN 1471-2164
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 37 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (7)

MRP3 is a sex determining gene in the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata journal November 2018
Comparative in depth RNA sequencing of P. tricornutum’s morphotypes reveals specific features of the oval morphotype journal September 2018
Time series and beyond: multifaceted plankton research at a marine Mediterranean LTER site journal May 2019
Putatively asexual chrysophytes have meiotic genes: evidence from transcriptomic data journal January 2019
Correction to: Identification of the meiotic toolkit in diatoms and exploration of meiosis-specific SPO11 and RAD51 homologs in the sexual species Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata and Seminavis robusta journal July 2019
Morphological and transcriptomic evidence for ammonium induction of sexual reproduction in Thalassiosira pseudonana and other centric diatoms journal June 2017
Finding a partner in the ocean: molecular and evolutionary bases of the response to sexual cues in a planktonic diatom journal April 2017


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