Biology of a picoeukaryotic phytoplankton, Parmales(Bolidophyceae), a sister group of diatoms
Event Type: Seminar
Event Date: 11 September 2018 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Venue: ASE 3D Viz Laboratory Room (N2-B1c-16c)
Speaker: Prof. Akira Kuwata
About the speaker:
Akira Kuwata is the Head of the Ecosystem Dynamics Group of the Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan. His research focuses on the biology of diatoms, a ubiquitous phytoplankton group that exerts a major control both over ocean ecosystems and over the global silicon cycle. He obtained his doctorate in botany at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and then conducted post-doctoral research in Japan and in Spain. He has been a Research Scientist at the Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute since 1999.
About the event:
Parmales (Bolidophyceae) is a group of pico-sized eukaryotic marine phytoplankton that contains species with cells surrounded by silica plates as well as naked flagellated species (formerly Bolidomonadales). Parmales have been found widely in the world’s oceans, from polar to subtropical regions. Based on similarities in cell wall structure, silicified forms of Parmales has been proposed as a close relative to diatoms, which are the most successful phytoplankton group in modern oceans. However, there was very little biological information on Parmales, because no cultures were available for laboratory study. Recent isolation of the silicified forms of Parmales from the Oyashio water in the Western Subarctic Pacific, allowed SEM and TEM observations, photosynthetic pigments and molecular phylogenetic analyses that demonstrated that Parmales belong to Heterokonta and share a common ancestor with diatoms. Because the origin of the silica cell wall and the early evolution of diatoms are still unclear, silicified Parmales may help answer these questions. I would like to present current information of phylogeny, global distribution, ecology, life cycle silica plate formation, mitotic division, of this group obtained by recent studies using phylogenetical, eco-physiological, morphological and metagenomic approaches.