Research Areas and Sub-Specialties
Systematics of Photosynthetic Microalgae
Marine
and freshwater ecosystems are home to a bewildering assortment of
microscopic organisms that possess plastids. This group, collectively
known as phytoplankton, includes unicellular and colonial species
that may be non-motile, flagellate or amoeboid. Phytoplankton assemblages
are evolutionarily diverse and include species belonging to several
different kingdoms and phyla. The ancestors of many extant phytoplankton
species are among the earliest diverging photosynthetic organisms
that evolved via symbiosis presumably over 700 million years ago.
My students and I use traditional and molecular biological tools to investigate the phylogeny and cell biology of eukaryotic microalgae. For example, we are using nuclear- and plastid-encoded genes to examine the evolution of several groups of chlorophyll a + c -containing microalgae. Such groups include the chrysophytes, diatoms, eustigmatophytes, prymnesiophytes, synurophytes and anthophytes
among others. 
The
morphology and biology of these tiny cells is explored using light
and electron microscopy. We are also studying the systematics of
the Phylum Oomycota, a taxon that includes aseptate non-photosynthetic
organisms many of which are plant or animal pathogens. Recent work
in my laboratory has focused on several plastid-encoded genes involved
in the assembly of critically important Fe/S clusters. We are also
examining members of the glutamine synthetase (GSII) gene family
and are particularly interested in GSII genes that are encoded by
the nucleus but function within the plastid. Real-time PCR methods
are used to study how the expression of these genes differ in different
organisms and to elucidate those factors responsible for up- or
down-regulation of mRNA synthesis.
Research in my laboratory is supported
by grants from the National Science
Foundation.
Faculty researching this area include:
 J. Craig Bailey |
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