"Diatoms are eukaryotic, photosynthetic microorganisms found throughout marine and freshwater ecosystems that are responsible for around 20% of global primary productivity. A defining feature of diatoms is their ornately patterned silicified cell wall (known as frustule), which display species-specific nanoscale-structures. These organisms therefore play major roles in global carbon and silicon cycles.
The whole genome sequencing of the marine pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum has been recently performed by the Joint Genome Institute (Walnut Creek, CA, USA) (http://genome.jgi-psf.org/Phatr2/Phatr2.home.html). Although not considered to be of great ecological significance, P. tricornutum has been found in several locations around the world, typically in coastal areas with wide fluctutations in salinity. Unlike other diatoms it can exist in different morphotypes, and changes in cell shape can be stimulated by environmental conditions. This feature can be used to explore the molecular basis of cell shape control and morphogenesis. Furthermore the species can grow in the absence of silicon, and the biogenesis of silicified frustules is facultative, thereby providing opportunities for experimental exploration of silicon-based nanofabrication in diatoms. P. tricornutum has been used in laboratory-based studies of diatom physiology for several decades, and it is currently the only diatom that can routinely be genetically transformed.
In a joint project with Genoscope (Evry, France) we have generated approximately 90,000 ESTs from P. tricornutum cells grown in a range of conditions. Here we present a database of these sequences, that can be used for digital gene expression studies to explore this organismes responses to a range of environmental conditions. Such studies should provide a foundation for interpreting the ecological success of diatoms."
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MSFC-446 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20070039073/downloads/20070039073.pdf Testing Prospects for Reliable Diatom Nanotechnology in Microgravity
Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures DARPA-SN-25-51 https://blogbarley.blogspot.com/2025/03/large-bio-mechanical-space-structures.html
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