Exploring Molecular Signs of Sex in the Marine Diatom Skeletonema marinoi.

ABSTRACT: Sexual reproduction plays a fundamental role in diatom life cycles. It contributes to increasing genetic diversity through meiotic recombination and also represents the phase where large-sized cells are produced to counteract the cell size reduction process that characterizes these microalgae. With the aim to identify genes linked to the sexual phase of the centric planktonic diatom Skeletonemamarinoi, we carried out an RNA-seq experiment comparing the expression level of transcripts in sexualized cells with that of large cells not competent for sex. A set of genes involved in meiosis were found upregulated. Despite the fact that flagellate gametes were observed in the sample, we did not detect the expression of genes involved in the synthesis of flagella that were upregulate

SUBMITTER: Ferrante MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6678668 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature