Photo: Nils Kroger, Regensburg University
Last summer's publication of the first diatom genome provided insight into the workings of a tiny organism with huge potential for environmental, industrial, and research applications.1 A growing appreciation of the sequence, however, has begun to divulge one of nature's wilder and most productive experiments.
Diatoms, a diverse division of one-celled ocean algae with gemlike silica casings, are thought to collectively absorb as much carbon dioxide through photosynthesis as all the world's rainforests. They appear to have descended from organisms near the plant-animal divergence in evolution, and their unique and intricate structures serve both as inspiration and model for nanofabrication technologies.
Yet beneath their sometimes striking enclosures, diatoms and many other algae reveal a sordid past of endosymbiotic events. They are, in essence, three organisms in one – or more precisely, one within another, within another. Researchers say this odd arrangement has major implications for ...
