PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eric R. Moore
AU  - Briana S. Bullington
AU  - Alexandra J. Weisberg
AU  - Yuan Jiang
AU  - Jeff Chang
AU  - Kimberly H. Halsey
TI  - Morphological and transcriptomic evidence for ammonium induction of sexual reproduction in <em>Thalassiosira pseudonana</em> and other centric diatoms
AID  - 10.1101/144667
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 144667
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/31/144667.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/31/144667.full
AB  - The reproductive strategy of diatoms includes asexual and sexual phases, but in many species, including the model centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, sexual reproduction has never been observed. Furthermore, the environmental factors that trigger sexual reproduction in diatoms are not understood. Although genome sequences of a few diatoms are available, little is known about the molecular basis for sexual reproduction. Here we show that ammonium reliably induces the key sexual morphologies, including oogonia, auxospores, and spermatogonia, in two strains of T. pseudonana, T. weissflogii, and Cyclotella cryptica. RNA sequencing revealed 1,274 genes whose expression patterns changed when T. pseudonana was induced into sexual reproduction by ammonium. Some of the induced genes are linked to meiosis or encode flagellar structures of heterokont and cryptophyte algae. The identification of ammonium as an environmental trigger suggests an unexpected link between diatom bloom dynamics and strategies for enhancing population genetic diversity.