Ostreococcus

Ostreococcus is a genus of unicellular coccoid or spherically shaped green alga belonging to the class Prasinophyceae. It includes prominent members of the global picoplankton community, which plays a central role in the oceanic carbon cycle.

History

The first member of the genus, O. tauri, was discovered in 1994 in an investigation of the picoplankton in the Thau lagoon by Courties and Chretiennot-Dinet using flow cytometry.^[1] Unicellular photosynthetic organisms are generally amenable to study using flow cytometry because of the autofluorescence provided by chlorophyll and other fluorophores used by the cells for the harvesting and control of sunlight, which allows such pigments to be studied without any staining of the cells. The different pigments present can be distinguished and identified on a cell-by-cell basis using flow cytometry, allowing researchers to deduce the different species present in the sample and help classify any new species found.^[2] O. tauri was immediately placed in the class Prasinophyceae based on the presence of characteristic chlorophyll pigments and Chlorophyceae-related carotenoids^[1] as well as cell ultrastructure, and its position was later confirmed by analysis of its 18S rDNA.^[3] Other members of the genus have since been found in many oceanic regions.

Anatomy

The genus contains the smallest known free-living eukaryotic species, with an average size of 0.8 µm.^[1] The ultrastructure of cells in this genus have so far been characterised by remarkable simplicity, being coccoid cells lacking a cell wall and containing a single chloroplast, a single mitochondrion, and a single Golgi body as well as its nucleus.^[1] The genome sequence of three members of this genus have been published: the 12.56 Mb nuclear genome of O. tauri in 2006,^[4] and the sequences of O. lucimarinus and strain RCC141 have followed. The draft metabolic networks of these two Ostreococcus species were reconstructed from the KEGG database, thermodynamically constrained, elementally balanced, and functionally evaluated in 2012. ^[5]

References