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Micaela S. Parker

Other affiliations: University of Los Andes
Bio: Micaela S. Parker is an academic researcher from University of Washington. The author has contributed to research in topics: Thalassiosira pseudonana & Diatom. The author has an hindex of 20, co-authored 23 publications receiving 7385 citations. Previous affiliations of Micaela S. Parker include University of Los Andes.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Oct 2004-Science
TL;DR: The 34 million-base-pair draft nuclear genome of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana and its 129 thousand-base pair plastid and 44 thousand base-pair mitochondrial genomes were reported in this article.
Abstract: Diatoms are unicellular algae with plastids acquired by secondary endosymbiosis. They are responsible for approximately 20% of global carbon fixation. We report the 34 million-base pair draft nuclear genome of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana and its 129 thousand-base pair plastid and 44 thousand-base pair mitochondrial genomes. Sequence and optical restriction mapping revealed 24 diploid nuclear chromosomes. We identified novel genes for silicic acid transport and formation of silica-based cell walls, high-affinity iron uptake, biosynthetic enzymes for several types of polyunsaturated fatty acids, use of a range of nitrogenous compounds, and a complete urea cycle, all attributes that allow diatoms to prosper in aquatic environments.

1,945 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
13 Nov 2008-Nature
TL;DR: Analysis of molecular divergence compared with yeasts and metazoans reveals rapid rates of gene diversification in diatoms, and documents the presence of hundreds of genes from bacteria, likely to provide novel possibilities for metabolite management and for perception of environmental signals.
Abstract: Diatoms are photosynthetic secondary endosymbionts found throughout marine and freshwater environments, and are believed to be responsible for around one- fifth of the primary productivity on Earth(1,2). The genome sequence of the marine centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana was recently reported, revealing a wealth of information about diatom biology(3-5). Here we report the complete genome sequence of the pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and compare it with that of T. pseudonana to clarify evolutionary origins, functional significance and ubiquity of these features throughout diatoms. In spite of the fact that the pennate and centric lineages have only been diverging for 90 million years, their genome structures are dramatically different and a substantial fraction of genes (similar to 40%) are not shared by these representatives of the two lineages. Analysis of molecular divergence compared with yeasts and metazoans reveals rapid rates of gene diversification in diatoms. Contributing factors include selective gene family expansions, differential losses and gains of genes and introns, and differential mobilization of transposable elements. Most significantly, we document the presence of hundreds of genes from bacteria. More than 300 of these gene transfers are found in both diatoms, attesting to their ancient origins, and many are likely to provide novel possibilities for metabolite management and for perception of environmental signals. These findings go a long way towards explaining the incredible diversity and success of the diatoms in contemporary oceans.

1,500 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Deciphering the languages of diatoms and bacteria and how they interact will inform the understanding of the role these organisms have in shaping the ocean and how these interactions may change in future oceans.
Abstract: SUMMARY Diatoms and bacteria have cooccurred in common habitats for hundreds of millions of years, thus fostering specific associations and interactions with global biogeochemical consequences. Diatoms are responsible for one-fifth of the photosynthesis on Earth, while bacteria remineralize a large portion of this fixed carbon in the oceans. Through their coexistence, diatoms and bacteria cycle nutrients between oxidized and reduced states, impacting bioavailability and ultimately feeding higher trophic levels. Here we present an overview of how diatoms and bacteria interact and the implications of these interactions. We emphasize that heterotrophic bacteria in the oceans that are consistently associated with diatoms are confined to two phyla. These consistent bacterial associations result from encounter mechanisms that occur within a microscale environment surrounding a diatom cell. We review signaling mechanisms that occur in this microenvironment to pave the way for specific interactions. Finally, we discuss known interactions between diatoms and bacteria and exciting new directions and research opportunities in this field. Throughout the review, we emphasize new technological advances that will help in the discovery of new interactions. Deciphering the languages of diatoms and bacteria and how they interact will inform our understanding of the role these organisms have in shaping the ocean and how these interactions may change in future oceans.

750 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
04 Jun 2015-Nature
TL;DR: This study expands on the emerging recognition that marine microbial communities are part of tightly connected networks by providing evidence that these interactions are mediated through production and exchange of infochemicals.
Abstract: Interactions between primary producers and bacteria impact the physiology of both partners, alter the chemistry of their environment, and shape ecosystem diversity. In marine ecosystems, these interactions are difficult to study partly because the major photosynthetic organisms are microscopic, unicellular phytoplankton. Coastal phytoplankton communities are dominated by diatoms, which generate approximately 40% of marine primary production and form the base of many marine food webs. Diatoms co-occur with specific bacterial taxa, but the mechanisms of potential interactions are mostly unknown. Here we tease apart a bacterial consortium associated with a globally distributed diatom and find that a Sulfitobacter species promotes diatom cell division via secretion of the hormone indole-3-acetic acid, synthesized by the bacterium using both diatom-secreted and endogenous tryptophan. Indole-3-acetic acid and tryptophan serve as signalling molecules that are part of a complex exchange of nutrients, including diatom-excreted organosulfur molecules and bacterial-excreted ammonia. The potential prevalence of this mode of signalling in the oceans is corroborated by metabolite and metatranscriptome analyses that show widespread indole-3-acetic acid production by Sulfitobacter-related bacteria, particularly in coastal environments. Our study expands on the emerging recognition that marine microbial communities are part of tightly connected networks by providing evidence that these interactions are mediated through production and exchange of infochemicals.

726 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Apr 2009-Science
TL;DR: It is found that genomes from two isolates shared only 90% of their predicted genes, and divergence appears to have been facilitated by selection and acquisition processes that actively shape the repertoire of genes that are mutually exclusive between the two isolate differently than the core genes.
Abstract: Picoeukaryotes are a taxonomically diverse group of organisms less than 2 micrometers in diameter. Photosynthetic marine picoeukaryotes in the genus Micromonas thrive in ecosystems ranging from tropical to polar and could serve as sentinel organisms for biogeochemical fluxes of modern oceans during climate change. These broadly distributed primary producers belong to an anciently diverged sister clade to land plants. Although Micromonas isolates have high 18S ribosomal RNA gene identity, we found that genomes from two isolates shared only 90% of their predicted genes. Their independent evolutionary paths were emphasized by distinct riboswitch arrangements as well as the discovery of intronic repeat elements in one isolate, and in metagenomic data, but not in other genomes. Divergence appears to have been facilitated by selection and acquisition processes that actively shape the repertoire of genes that are mutually exclusive between the two isolates differently than the core genes. Analyses of the Micromonas genomes offer valuable insights into ecological differentiation and the dynamic nature of early plant evolution.

617 citations


Cited by
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28 Jul 2005
TL;DR: PfPMP1)与感染红细胞、树突状组胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用,在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作�ly.
Abstract: 抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1(PfPMP1)与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用,在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员,通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

18,940 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Sabeeha S. Merchant1, Simon E. Prochnik2, Olivier Vallon3, Elizabeth H. Harris4, Steven J. Karpowicz1, George B. Witman5, Astrid Terry2, Asaf Salamov2, Lillian K. Fritz-Laylin6, Laurence Maréchal-Drouard7, Wallace F. Marshall8, Liang-Hu Qu9, David R. Nelson10, Anton A. Sanderfoot11, Martin H. Spalding12, Vladimir V. Kapitonov13, Qinghu Ren, Patrick J. Ferris14, Erika Lindquist2, Harris Shapiro2, Susan Lucas2, Jane Grimwood15, Jeremy Schmutz15, Pierre Cardol3, Pierre Cardol16, Heriberto Cerutti17, Guillaume Chanfreau1, Chun-Long Chen9, Valérie Cognat7, Martin T. Croft18, Rachel M. Dent6, Susan K. Dutcher19, Emilio Fernández20, Hideya Fukuzawa21, David González-Ballester22, Diego González-Halphen23, Armin Hallmann, Marc Hanikenne16, Michael Hippler24, William Inwood6, Kamel Jabbari25, Ming Kalanon26, Richard Kuras3, Paul A. Lefebvre11, Stéphane D. Lemaire27, Alexey V. Lobanov17, Martin Lohr28, Andrea L Manuell29, Iris Meier30, Laurens Mets31, Maria Mittag32, Telsa M. Mittelmeier33, James V. Moroney34, Jeffrey L. Moseley22, Carolyn A. Napoli33, Aurora M. Nedelcu35, Krishna K. Niyogi6, Sergey V. Novoselov17, Ian T. Paulsen, Greg Pazour5, Saul Purton36, Jean-Philippe Ral7, Diego Mauricio Riaño-Pachón37, Wayne R. Riekhof, Linda A. Rymarquis38, Michael Schroda, David B. Stern39, James G. Umen14, Robert D. Willows40, Nedra F. Wilson41, Sara L. Zimmer39, Jens Allmer42, Janneke Balk18, Katerina Bisova43, Chong-Jian Chen9, Marek Eliáš44, Karla C Gendler33, Charles R. Hauser45, Mary Rose Lamb46, Heidi K. Ledford6, Joanne C. Long1, Jun Minagawa47, M. Dudley Page1, Junmin Pan48, Wirulda Pootakham22, Sanja Roje49, Annkatrin Rose50, Eric Stahlberg30, Aimee M. Terauchi1, Pinfen Yang51, Steven G. Ball7, Chris Bowler25, Carol L. Dieckmann33, Vadim N. Gladyshev17, Pamela J. Green38, Richard A. Jorgensen33, Stephen P. Mayfield29, Bernd Mueller-Roeber37, Sathish Rajamani30, Richard T. Sayre30, Peter Brokstein2, Inna Dubchak2, David Goodstein2, Leila Hornick2, Y. Wayne Huang2, Jinal Jhaveri2, Yigong Luo2, Diego Martinez2, Wing Chi Abby Ngau2, Bobby Otillar2, Alexander Poliakov2, Aaron Porter2, Lukasz Szajkowski2, Gregory Werner2, Kemin Zhou2, Igor V. Grigoriev2, Daniel S. Rokhsar6, Daniel S. Rokhsar2, Arthur R. Grossman22 
University of California, Los Angeles1, United States Department of Energy2, University of Paris3, Duke University4, University of Massachusetts Medical School5, University of California, Berkeley6, Centre national de la recherche scientifique7, University of California, San Francisco8, Sun Yat-sen University9, University of Tennessee Health Science Center10, University of Minnesota11, Iowa State University12, Genetic Information Research Institute13, Salk Institute for Biological Studies14, Stanford University15, University of Liège16, University of Nebraska–Lincoln17, University of Cambridge18, Washington University in St. Louis19, University of Córdoba (Spain)20, Kyoto University21, Carnegie Institution for Science22, National Autonomous University of Mexico23, University of Münster24, École Normale Supérieure25, University of Melbourne26, University of Paris-Sud27, University of Mainz28, Scripps Research Institute29, Ohio State University30, University of Chicago31, University of Jena32, University of Arizona33, Louisiana State University34, University of New Brunswick35, University College London36, University of Potsdam37, Delaware Biotechnology Institute38, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research39, Macquarie University40, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences41, İzmir University of Economics42, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic43, Charles University in Prague44, St. Edward's University45, University of Puget Sound46, Hokkaido University47, Tsinghua University48, Washington State University49, Appalachian State University50, Marquette University51
12 Oct 2007-Science
TL;DR: Analyses of the Chlamydomonas genome advance the understanding of the ancestral eukaryotic cell, reveal previously unknown genes associated with photosynthetic and flagellar functions, and establish links between ciliopathy and the composition and function of flagella.
Abstract: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a unicellular green alga whose lineage diverged from land plants over 1 billion years ago. It is a model system for studying chloroplast-based photosynthesis, as well as the structure, assembly, and function of eukaryotic flagella (cilia), which were inherited from the common ancestor of plants and animals, but lost in land plants. We sequenced the approximately 120-megabase nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas and performed comparative phylogenomic analyses, identifying genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are likely associated with the function and biogenesis of chloroplasts or eukaryotic flagella. Analyses of the Chlamydomonas genome advance our understanding of the ancestral eukaryotic cell, reveal previously unknown genes associated with photosynthetic and flagellar functions, and establish links between ciliopathy and the composition and function of flagella.

2,554 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: FastTree as mentioned in this paper uses sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins, then uses nearest-neighbor interchanges to reduce the length of the tree.
Abstract: Gene families are growing rapidly, but standard methods for inferring phylogenies do not scale to alignments with over 10,000 sequences. We present FastTree, a method for constructing large phylogenies and for estimating their reliability. Instead of storing a distance matrix, FastTree stores sequence profiles of internal nodes in the tree. FastTree uses these profiles to implement neighbor-joining and uses heuristics to quickly identify candidate joins. FastTree then uses nearest-neighbor interchanges to reduce the length of the tree. For an alignment with N sequences, L sites, and a different characters, a distance matrix requires O(N^2) space and O(N^2 L) time, but FastTree requires just O( NLa + N sqrt(N) ) memory and O( N sqrt(N) log(N) L a ) time. To estimate the tree's reliability, FastTree uses local bootstrapping, which gives another 100-fold speedup over a distance matrix. For example, FastTree computed a tree and support values for 158,022 distinct 16S ribosomal RNAs in 17 hours and 2.4 gigabytes of memory. Just computing pairwise Jukes-Cantor distances and storing them, without inferring a tree or bootstrapping, would require 17 hours and 50 gigabytes of memory. In simulations, FastTree was slightly more accurate than neighbor joining, BIONJ, or FastME; on genuine alignments, FastTree's topologies had higher likelihoods. FastTree is available at http://microbesonline.org/fasttree.

2,436 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
13 Aug 2010-Science
TL;DR: Although microalgae are not yet produced at large scale for bulk applications, recent advances—particularly in the methods of systems biology, genetic engineering, and biorefining—present opportunities to develop this process in a sustainable and economical way within the next 10 to 15 years.
Abstract: Microalgae are considered one of the most promising feedstocks for biofuels. The productivity of these photosynthetic microorganisms in converting carbon dioxide into carbon-rich lipids, only a step or two away from biodiesel, greatly exceeds that of agricultural oleaginous crops, without competing for arable land. Worldwide, research and demonstration programs are being carried out to develop the technology needed to expand algal lipid production from a craft to a major industrial process. Although microalgae are not yet produced at large scale for bulk applications, recent advances—particularly in the methods of systems biology, genetic engineering, and biorefining—present opportunities to develop this process in a sustainable and economical way within the next 10 to 15 years.

1,712 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the impacts of global climate change on food systems are expected to be widespread, complex, geographically and temporally variable, and profoundly influenced by socioeconomic conditions, and some synergies among food security, adaptati...
Abstract: Food systems contribute 19%–29% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, releasing 9,800–16,900 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2008. Agricultural production, including indirect emissions associated with land-cover change, contributes 80%–86% of total food system emissions, with significant regional variation. The impacts of global climate change on food systems are expected to be widespread, complex, geographically and temporally variable, and profoundly influenced by socioeconomic conditions. Historical statistical studies and integrated assessment models provide evidence that climate change will affect agricultural yields and earnings, food prices, reliability of delivery, food quality, and, notably, food safety. Low-income producers and consumers of food will be more vulnerable to climate change owing to their comparatively limited ability to invest in adaptive institutions and technologies under increasing climatic risks. Some synergies among food security, adaptati...

1,598 citations