Genome Properties of the Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

What is it about?

We have examined the genome composition of P. tricornutum through the generation of approximately 1,000 ESTs. Although >60% of these sequences could not be unequivocally identified by similarity to sequences in the databases, approximately 20% had high similarity with a range of genes defined functionally at the protein level. It is interesting that many of these sequences are more similar to animal rather than plant counterparts. Base composition at each codon position and GC content of the genome were compared with Arabidopsis, maize (Zea mays), and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. It was found that distribution of GC within the coding sequences is as homogeneous in P. tricornutum as in Arabidopsis, but with a slightly higher GC content. Furthermore, we found evidence that the P. tricornutum genome is likely to be small (less than 20 Mb).

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Why is it important?

Diatoms are a ubiquitous class of microalgae of extreme importance for global primary productivity and for the biogeochemical cycling of minerals such as silica.

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