Background:
The green lineage comprises the most dominant groups of primary producers on earth. These organisms evolved after the joining of a cyanobacterium and a heterotrophic eukaryote. The green lineage includes the green algae (unicellular and seaweeds) and land plants. Land plants are the major components of terrestrial ecosystems, while the green algae have conquered oceanic, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. In oceanic waters, photosynthetic picoplanktonic eukaryotes (cells with size below 3 ?m) dominate primary production and biomass where eukaryotic pico-phytoplankton cells essentially consist of green algae from the prasinophyte lineage. By forming persistent background populations, they are critical for the maintenance of major biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon cycle).
Phylogenomics and comparative genomics act as lenses into the past, providing us with ways to identify the genomic innovations and environmental/genetic trade offs that led to the diversity and success of green algae. However, genomics research on unicellular marine green algae is far from having reached its full potential, and there is currently a significant bias in sequenced representatives that hampers our understanding of their diversity as well as their role in the environment. Despite thousands of described species (6878 catalogued in AlgaeBase) from 13 different lineages, only 89 Chlorophyta nuclear genomes are available in GenBank. Of these, more than 80% are restricted to two groups of organisms that either serve as model systems (e.g. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) or are considered of economic importance (e.g. Chlorella and Nannochloris).
What do we want to accomplish?
The key objective of this project is to improve our understanding of the evolution of genome architectures, gene sequences, and metabolic capacities across the Chlorophyta.
How do we want to achieve our goal?
We propose to fill the gap in genomic research of marine green algae by generating and analyzing genomes from under-represented unicellular lineages, found in contrasting oceanic conditions and with small (1N?) and large (2N?) genome sizes. Reference nuclear genomes from distinct species have been and will be obtained in the frame of New Green Genes project led by PI Lopes and supported by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI, US). Assembly and annotation of reference genomes will be provided by JGI.
What will you learn during the Master?
how to obtain microalgae biomass for DNA and RNA sequencing
how to perform phylogenomic analysis
how to perform and document your analysis with R language and GitHub
how to write documents using the LaTeX script language
You will have the opportunity to:
- get integrated with PhD-student, postdoc and other Master students participating on distinct projects
- connect with an international network of phycologist and Microalgae platafomrs such as the Roscoff Culture Collection (the largest algae culture collection in wolrd located in France)
What can we offer?
We offer a safe space for learning through achievements and failures, alone and in partnership with others. We welcome individuals of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, gender expressions, national origins, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, and any other visible and non-visible differences. All members of our research groups are expected to contribute to a respectful, welcoming and inclusive environment for every other member.
Supervisors:
Assoc Prof Adriana Lopes and co-supervisors: Prof Bente Edvardsen (AKVA, IBV), Gwena?l Piganeau & Daniel Vaulot (CNRS, French National Centre for Scientific Research)