単細胞生物海ぶどうのゲノム研究:単細胞の陸上植物は作れるか

抄録

Some unicellular organisms show complex structures and grow to visible size.　Caulerpa lentillifera is such a giant unicellular organism. The inside of the cell is not divided by physical boundaries, nevertheless, the alga consists of three different structures called fronds, stolons and rhizoids.　The functions of each structure of the giant cell have not been clarified, however, transcriptomic analyses of Caulerpa species indicate that their fronds function as photosynthetic compartments such as leaves of land plants.　In addition, our comparative genomic analysis among green plants including algae suggests that the physiological convergence between Caulerpa and land plants may arise from paralogous gene expansions in a similar manner across both lineages as well as orthologous gene retentions.