| Abstract Detail
Borrowed Chloroplasts: Secondary Endosymbiosis and the Chromalveolates Phillips, Naomi [1], Bhattacharya, Debashish [2], Braun, Ed [3]. Borrowed Chloroplasts: Secondary Endosymbiosis and the Chromalveolates. The phenomenon of secondary endosymbiosis has attracted substantial attention as a plausible explanation for the distribution of plastid features that would otherwise require multiple novel origins of photosynthesis in distantly related eukaryotes. The tools from genomics, phylogenetics, and biochemistry have been combined to unlock the mysteries behind the process of plastid secondary endosymbiosis. The chromalveolates are a eukaryotic supergroup with many members that have plastids that arose via secondary endosymbiosis. These “secondary” plastids also exhibit substantial diversity. This diversity ranges from the cryptomonads, which have retained a highly reduced nucleus (the nucleomorph) that is associated with the plastid in a membrane-bound compartment, to the dinoflagellates, which have plastid genomes that are comprised of minicircles containing distinct genes, to the apicomplexan parasites that contained a remnant plastid termed the apicoplast. The chromalveolates also contain some of the largest known protists, the kelps that are members of the brown algae (Phaeophyceae) that fall within the Stramenopiles (Heterokonta), one of the kingdom-level groups within the chromalveolates. Participants in this session will provide an interdisciplinary description of the problems and open questions associated with chromalveolates and the phenomenon of secondary endosymbiosis.
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1 - Arcadia University, Biology Department, 450 S. Easton RD, Glenside, PA, 19038, united States
2 - University of Iowa, Department of Biological Sciences and Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics, 446 Biology Building, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242, USA
3 - University of Florida, Department of Zoology, P.O. Box 118525, 223 Bartram Hall, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
Keywords:
apicomplexan
phylogenomics
diatoms
Cryptomonads
Dinoflagellates.
Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY15
Location: Waldorf Room/Hilton
Date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: SY15SUM
Abstract ID:2421 |
