Projects & Grants
| Unravelling the complex evolutionary history of a novel superclass of ochrophytes | |
|---|---|
| Project Id | 26-21526S |
| Main solver | prof. Mgr. Marek Eliáš, Ph.D. |
| Period | 1/2026 - 3/2028 |
| Provider | Standardní projekt GA ČR |
| State | solved |
| Anotation | The knowledge of Ochrophyta, the major algal phylum containing diatoms, brown seaweeds, and a plethora of less familiar lineages, comprises many ?known unknowns?. We want to address two of them: (1) the conflicting answer regarding the phylogenetic position of the class Eustigmatophyceae provided by their plastid genome and the nuclear/mitochondrial genome; (2) the unknown nature of two class-level ochrophyte lineages, MOCH-3 and MOCH-5, previously detected through environmental DNA sequences. Our preliminary results indicate that all three classes, together with two additional newly identified uncultivated lineages, constitute a single ?superclass? that, we hypothesize, has experienced non-vertical inheritance of the plastid. We will test this scenario by sequencing a MOCH-5 member exclusively available to us, cultivation and characterization of members of the novel lineages, exploration of metagenomic data, and complex comparative genomic and phylogenomic analyses. The results will resolve a major conundrum of ochrophyte biology, with implications for plastid evolution in general. |
| Total Costs | 8 247 000 CZK |
