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

• DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-1983-5
• Publication Date: 2015-11-14T05:52:01Z
• Authors: Shrikant Patil; Sara Moeys; Peter von Dassow; Marie J. J. Huysman; Daniel Mapleson; Lieven De Veylder; Remo Sanges; Wim Vyverman; Marina Montresor; Maria Immacolata ...
• Keywords: Obligate; Thalassiosira pseudonana; Sexual reproduction

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