TY - JOUR AU - Stephens, Timothy G. AU - González-Pech, Raúl A. AU - Cheng, Yuanyuan AU - Mohamed, Amin R. AU - Burt, David W. AU - Bhattacharya, Debashish AU - Ragan, Mark A. AU - Chan, Cheong Xin PY - 2020 DA - 2020/05/24 TI - Genomes of the dinoflagellate Polarella glacialis encode tandemly repeated single-exon genes with adaptive functions JO - BMC Biology SP - 56 VL - 18 IS - 1 AB - Dinoflagellates are taxonomically diverse and ecologically important phytoplankton that are ubiquitously present in marine and freshwater environments. Mostly photosynthetic, dinoflagellates provide the basis of aquatic primary production; most taxa are free-living, while some can form symbiotic and parasitic associations with other organisms. However, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that underpin the adaptation of these organisms to diverse ecological niches is limited by the scarce availability of genomic data, partly due to their large genome sizes estimated up to 250 Gbp. Currently available dinoflagellate genome data are restricted to Symbiodiniaceae (particularly symbionts of reef-building corals) and parasitic lineages, from taxa that have smaller genome size ranges, while genomic information from more diverse free-living species is still lacking. SN - 1741-7007 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00782-8 DO - 10.1186/s12915-020-00782-8 ID - Stephens2020 ER -