Sabina Wodniok

Origin of land plants: Do conjugating green algae hold the key?

BackgroundThe terrestrial habitat was colonized by the ancestors of modern land plants about 500 to 470 million years ago. Today it is widely accepted that land plants (embryophytes) evolved from streptophyte algae, also referred to as charophycean algae. The streptophyte algae are a paraphyletic group of green algae, ranging from unicellular flagellates to morphologically complex forms such as the stoneworts (Charales). For a better understanding of the evolution of land plants, it is of prime importance to identify the streptophyte algae that are the sister-group to the embryophytes. The Charales, the Coleochaetales or more recently the Zygnematales have been considered to be the sister group of the embryophytes However, despite many years of phylogenetic studies, this question has not been resolved and remains controversial.ResultsHere, we use a large data set of nuclear-encoded genes (129 proteins) from 40 green plant taxa (Viridiplantae) including 21 embryophytes and six streptophyte algae, representing all major streptophyte algal lineages, to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of streptophyte algae and embryophytes. Our phylogenetic analyses indicate that either the Zygnematales or a clade consisting of the Zygnematales and the Coleochaetales are the sister group to embryophytes.ConclusionsOur analyses support the notion that the Charales are not the closest living relatives of embryophytes. Instead, the Zygnematales or a clade consisting of Zygnematales and Coleochaetales are most likely the sister group of embryophytes. Although this result is in agreement with a previously published phylogenetic study of chloroplast genomes, additional data are needed to confirm this conclusion. A Zygnematales/embryophyte sister group relationship has important implications for early land plant evolution. If substantiated, it should allow us to address important questions regarding the primary adaptations of viridiplants during the conquest of land. Clearly, the biology of the Zygnematales will receive renewed interest in the future.

Swapped green algal promoters: aphVIII-based gene constructs with Chlamydomonas flanking sequences work as dominant selectable markers in Volvox and vice versa

Production of transgenic organisms is a well-established, versatile course of action in molecular biology. Genetic engineering often requires heterologous, dominant antibiotic resistance genes that have been used as selectable markers in many species. However, as heterologous 5′ and 3′ flanking sequences often result in very low expression rates, endogenous flanking sequences, especially promoters, are mostly required and are easily obtained in model organisms, but it is much more complicated and time-consuming to get appropriate sequences from less common organisms. In this paper, we show that aminoglycoside 3′-phosphotransferase gene (aphVIII) based constructs with 3′ and 5′ untranslated flanking sequences (including promoters) from the multicellular green alga Volvox work in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas and flanking sequences from Chlamydomonas work in Volvox, at least if a low expression rate is compensated by an enforced high gene dosage. This strategy might be useful for all investigators that intend to transform species in which genomic sequences are not available, but sequences from related organisms exist.

Comprehensive transcriptome analysis provides new insights into nutritional strategies and phylogenetic relationships of chrysophytes

Background Chrysophytes are protist model species in ecology and ecophysiology and important grazers of bacteria-sized microorganisms and primary producers. However, they have not yet been investigated in detail at the molecular level, and no genomic and only little transcriptomic information is available. Chrysophytes exhibit different trophic modes: while phototrophic chrysophytes perform only photosynthesis, mixotrophs can gain carbon from bacterial food as well as from photosynthesis, and heterotrophs solely feed on bacteria-sized microorganisms. Recent phylogenies and megasystematics demonstrate an immense complexity of eukaryotic diversity with numerous transitions between phototrophic and heterotrophic organisms. The question we aim to answer is how the diverse nutritional strategies, accompanied or brought about by a reduction of the plasmid and size reduction in heterotrophic strains, affect physiology and molecular processes. Results We sequenced the mRNA of 18 chrysophyte strains on the Illumina HiSeq platform and analysed the transcriptomes to determine relations between the trophic mode (mixotrophic vs. heterotrophic) and gene expression. We observed an enrichment of genes for photosynthesis, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism for phototrophic and mixotrophic strains that can perform photosynthesis. Genes involved in nutrient absorption, environmental information processing and various transporters (e.g., monosaccharide, peptide, lipid transporters) were present or highly expressed only in heterotrophic strains that have to sense, digest and absorb bacterial food. We furthermore present a transcriptome-based alignment-free phylogeny construction approach using transcripts assembled from short reads to determine the evolutionary relationships between the strains and the possible influence of nutritional strategies on the reconstructed phylogeny. We discuss the resulting phylogenies in comparison to those from established approaches based on ribosomal RNA and orthologous genes. Finally, we make functionally annotated reference transcriptomes of each strain available to the community, significantly enhancing publicly available data on Chrysophyceae. Conclusions Our study is the first comprehensive transcriptomic characterisation of a diverse set of Chrysophyceaen strains. In addition, we showcase the possibility of inferring phylogenies from assembled transcriptomes using an alignment-free approach. The raw and functionally annotated data we provide will prove beneficial for further examination of the diversity within this taxon. Our molecular characterisation of different trophic modes presents a first such example.

Trade‐off between taxon diversity and functional diversity in European lake ecosystems

Inferring ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services through inspections of the species inventory is a major aspect of ecological field studies. Ecosystem functions are often stable despite considerable species turnover. Using metatranscriptome analyses, we analyse a thus‐far unparalleled freshwater data set which comprises 21 mainland European freshwater lakes from the Sierra Nevada (Spain) to the Carpathian Mountains (Romania) and from northern Germany to the Apennines (Italy) and covers an altitudinal range from 38 m above sea level (a.s.l) to 3110 m a.s.l. The dominant taxa were Chlorophyta and streptophytic algae, Ciliophora, Bacillariophyta and Chrysophyta. Metatranscriptomics provided insights into differences in community composition and into functional diversity via the relative share of taxa to the overall read abundance of distinct functional genes on the ecosystem level. The dominant metabolic pathways in terms of the fraction of expressed sequences in the cDNA libraries were affiliated with primary metabolism, specifically oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis and the TCA cycle. Our analyses indicate that community composition is a good first proxy for the analysis of ecosystem functions. However, differential gene regulation modifies the relative importance of taxa in distinct pathways. Whereas taxon composition varies considerably between lakes, the relative importance of distinct metabolic pathways is much more stable, indicating that ecosystem functioning is buffered against shifts in community composition through a functional redundancy of taxa.

Earth???s History

This chapter focuses on the development of the Earth since its formation, roughly 4.6 billion years ago. The planet’s geological development is closely linked to the evolution of life, which evolved approximately 4 billion years ago on Earth.

Distribution of present-day biodiversity

Biodiversity is unevenly distributed across the planet. A range of factors contribute to this distribution, including the global climatic gradient, the current and historical distribution of land masses, and geographical barriers, such as mountains.

Verteilung der heutigen Biodiversität

Biodiversitat ist auf der Erde nicht gleichmasig verteilt. Globale Klimagradienten, die aktuelle und die historische Verteilung der Landmassen, geographische Barrieren wie Gebirge und andere Faktoren tragen zu Unterschieden der Biodiversitat verschiedener Gebiete auf der Erde bei.