Putative Meiotic Toolkit in the Dinoflagellate Prorocentrum cordatum: Additional Evidence for Sexual Process from Transcriptome.

Prorocentrum cordatum (Ostenfeld) Dodge-is a planktonic armored dinoflagellate that is a bloom-forming, potentially toxic cosmopolitan species. The transition from vegetative reproduction to the sexual process has been recently shown for this organism. Here, we present the results of transcriptomic data analysis that uncovered one syngamy-associated and 16 meiosis-associated proteins in P. cordatum. We also detected an amino acid sequence homologous to bacterial MutS2 protein. The MutS2 presence and origin in dinoflagellates are discussed for the first time.