Claire S. Ting

TL;DR: The genomes of two Prochlorococcus strains that span the largest evolutionary distance within the Pro chlorococcus lineage are compared and reveal dynamic genomes that are constantly changing in response to myriad selection pressures.

TL;DR: Differences in the absorption properties and cellular costs between chlorophyll a(2)/b(2) and phycobilisome antennas in extant Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus appear to play a role in differentiating their ecological niches in the ocean environment.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the bimodal character of whole proteome pI values in bacteria and archaea and the trimodality in eukaryotes are likely to be general properties of proteomes and are associated with the need for different pIvalues depending on subcellular localization.

TL;DR: Intriguing features found in both Prochlorococcus strains include a gene cluster for Rubisco and carboxysomal proteins that is likely of non-cyanobacterial origin and two genes for a putative $$\varepsilon$$ and β lycopene cyclase, respectively, explaining how Pro chlorococcus may synthesize the α branch of carotenoids that is common in green organisms but not in other cyanobacteria.

TL;DR: Differences in phycoerythrin gene sequences between Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus appear to be consistent with a model of elevated mutation rates rather than relaxed selection, which suggests that although phycobiliproteins is not a major constituent of the light-harvesting apparatus in Pro chlorococcus, the cpeB and cpeA genes are still under selection, albeit a different type of selection than in SyneChococcus.