A supervised learning approach for taxonomic classification of core-photosystem-II genes and transcripts in the marine environment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cyanobacteria of the genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus play a key role in marine photosynthesis, which contributes to the global carbon cycle and to the world oxygen supply. Recently, genes encoding the photosystem II reaction center (psbA and psbD) were found in cyanophage genomes. This phenomenon suggested that the horizontal transfer of these genes may be involved in increasing phage fitness. To date, a very small percentage of marine bacteria and phages has been cultured. Thus, mapping genomic data extracted directly from the environment to its taxonomic origin is necessary for a better understanding of phage-host relationships and dynamics.

Results

To achieve an accurate and rapid taxonomic classification, we employed a computational approach combining

SUBMITTER: Tzahor S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2696472 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature