Background And Aims: Canyon stream beds in the hyperarid Atacama Desert surprisingly harbour magnificent groves of endemic giant horsetail wetland plants, Equisetum xylochaetum. Our previous metagenomic study of eukaryotes closely associated with this plant indicated that the microbiome included prokaryotes that might likewise influence host success and environment. We explored this possibility by using the metagenomic sequence to characterize prokaryote taxa and functional genes present in the microbiome of E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrigin of earliest land plants from ancestral algae dramatically accelerated the evolution of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, in which microbial symbioses have played key roles. Recent molecular diversification analyses identify the rare, geographically-limited moss Takakia as Earth's most archaic modern land plant. Despite occupying a phylogenetic position pivotal for understanding earliest plants, Takakia microbial associations are poorly known.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe modern pteridophyte genus is the only survivor of Sphenopsida, an ancient clade known from the Devonian. This genus, of nearly worldwide distribution, comprises approximately 15 extant species. However, genomic information is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis an algal genus known to be ecologically important. It provides habitats for microorganisms known to provide ecological services such as biosynthesis of cobalamin (vitamin B) and nutrient cycling. Most knowledge of microbiomes was obtained from studies of lacustrine species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytoremediation and bioremediation are eco-friendly methods of wastewater treatment that are widely used throughout the world to reduce anthropogenic water contamination. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of symbiotic bacteria in phytoremediation using two aquatic plants, Echinodorus cordifolius and Lepironia articulata, that were tested in sterilized and unsterilized groups. The results showed that unsterilized plants removed more phosphate, ammonium, nitrate and nitrite than the sterilized plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProkaryotic Nostoc, one of the world's most conspicuous and widespread algal genera (similar to eukaryotic algae, plants, and animals) is known to support a microbiome that influences host ecological roles. Past taxonomic characterizations of surface microbiota (epimicrobiota) of free-living Nostoc sampled from freshwater systems employed 16S rRNA genes, typically amplicons. We compared taxa identified from 16S, 18S, 23S, and 28S rRNA gene sequences filtered from shotgun metagenomic sequence and used microscopy to illuminate epimicrobiota diversity for Nostoc sampled from a wetland in the northern Chilean Altiplano.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein-coding genes in organellar genomes have been widely used to resolve relationships of chlorophyte algae. The mode of evolution of these protein-coding genes affects relationship estimations, yet selection effects on genes commonly used as markers in phylogenetic analyses are insufficiently well understood. To gain more understanding about the effects of green algal organelle protein-coding genes on phylogenies, more information is needed about the mode of gene evolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe wall-less green flagellate Pyramimonas parkeae is classified in clade I of the prasinophytes, a paraphyletic assemblage representing the last common ancestor of Viridiplantae, a monophyletic group composed of the green algae and land plants. Consequently, P. parkeae and other prasinophytes illuminate early-evolved Viridiplantae traits likely fundamental in the systems biology of green algae and land plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondria are archetypal eukaryotic organelles that were acquired by endosymbiosis of an ancient species of alpha-proteobacteria by the last eukaryotic common ancestor. The genetic information contained within the mitochondrial genome has been an important source of information for resolving relationships among eukaryotic taxa. In this study, we utilized mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes to explore relationships among prasinophytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrasinophytes form a paraphyletic assemblage of early diverging green algae, which have the potential to reveal the traits of the last common ancestor of the main two green lineages: (i) chlorophyte algae and (ii) streptophyte algae. Understanding the genetic composition of prasinophyte algae is fundamental to understanding the diversification and evolutionary processes that may have occurred in both green lineages. In this study, we sequenced the chloroplast genome of Pyramimonas parkeae NIES254 and compared it with that of P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report here the complete chloroplast genome sequence of Cymbomonas tetramitiformis strain PLY262, which is a prasinophycean green alga that retains a phagomixotrophic mode of nutrition. The genome is 84,524 bp in length, with a G+C content of 37%, and contains 3 rRNAs, 26 tRNAs, and 76 protein-coding genes.
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