News and Events

Debashish presented Warren H. Wagner lecture at the University of Michigan
The Wagner lecture series features well known scientists in the field of Plant Biology and Evolution and has enriched the scientific community with lectures in honor of Warren H. Wagner who among other accomplishments developed the Wagner phylogenetic tree ("Wagner parsimony") used by systematic biologists worldwide. Lecturers in the past include eminent scientists such as Elizabeth Kellogg, Jeffrey Palmer, and Michael Donoghue. In his seminar, Debashish will present the recent work in his lab on the topic of single cell genomics using samples from nature. event info

Price et al. publish paper in Science
Price D.C., Chan C.X., Yoon H.S., Yang E.C., Qiu H., Weber A.P., Schwacke R., Gross J., Blouin N.A., Lane C., Reyes-Prieto A., Durnford D.G., Neilson J.A., Lang F.B., Gertraud Burger G., Steiner J.M., Löffelhardt W., Meuser J.E., Posewitz M.C., Ball S., Arias M.C., Henrissat B., Coutinho P.M., Rensing S.A., Symeonidi A., Doddapaneni H., Green B.R., Rajah V.D., Boore J., and Bhattacharya D. 2012.Cyanophora paradoxa genome elucidates origin of photosynthesis in algae and plants. Science 17 February 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6070 pp. 843-847
doi|full text|Nature news|ScientificAmerican.com|biotechnologie.de [German]|RU news|Cyanophora BLAST and data download
See commentary by Spiegel FW. 2012. Contemplating the first Plantae. Science 17 February 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6070 pp. 809-810 |doi

NEWS & ANALYSIS - nature REVIEWS Microbiology
The first green revolution by Isheng J. Tsai describes how analysis of a basal member of the Plantae can inform us about the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes. doi

Bhattacharya, Price, Yoon et al. publish a paper in Scientific Reports
This paper shows that cyanobacteria that gave rise to a novel plastid in Paulinella chromatophora are eaten by its phagotrophic sister Paulinella ovalis and that this food is the source of horizontally transferred genes in P. ovalis. The results, for the first time, connect food, foreign gene transfer, and primary endposymbiosis in a single lineage.
Bhattacharya D., Price D.C., Yoon H.S., Yang E.C., Poulton N.J., Andersen R.A., Das S.P. Single cell genome analysis supports a link between phagotrophy and primary plastid endosymbiosis. doi

Select Publications

Chan, C.X., S. Zaeuner, G. Wheeler, A.R. Grossman, S.E. Prochnik, N.A. Blouin, Y. Zhuang, C. Benning, G.M. Berg, C.Yarish, R.L. Eriksen, A.S. Klein, S. Lin, I. Levine, S.H. Brawley, and D. Bhattacharya. 2012. Analysis of Porphyra membrane transporters demonstrates gene transfer among photosynthetic eukaryotes and numerous sodium-coupled transport systems. Plant Physiology. February 2012 pp.112.193896.
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Salcedo T, Upadhyay RJ, Nagasaki K, and Bhattacharya D. Accepted. Dozens of toxin-related genes are expressed in a non-toxic strain of the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa circularisquama. Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Yoon HS, Yang EC, Qiu H, Bhattacharya D. Accepted. Photosynthetic Paulinella -recapitulation of primary plastid establishment. In. Endosymbiosis (ed. W. Löffelhardt), Springer, Wien.

Bhattacharya D, Price DC, Chan CX, Gross J, Steiner JM, Löffelhardt W. Accepted. Analysis of the genome of Cyanophora paradoxa: an algal model for understanding primary endosymbiosis. In. Endosymbiosis (ed. W. Löffelhardt), Springer, Wien.

Chan C.X., Reyes-Prieto A, Bhattacharya D. 2011. Red and Green Algal Origin of Diatom Membrane Transporters: Insights into Environmental Adaptation and Cell Evolution. PLoS ONE 6(12): e29138.
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Chan C.X. and Bhattacharya D. 2011. Plastid origin and evolution. In: Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (eLS). Wiley & Sons. doi

Bhattacharya D. 2011. As an evolutionary biologist. Debashish Bhattacharya., Curr Biol. Sep 27;21(18):R676-7. doi

Yoon, H.S., D.C. Price, R. Stepanauskas, V.D. Rajah, M.E. Sieracki, W.H. Wilson, E.C. Yang, S. Duffy, and D. Bhattacharya. 2011. Single cell genomics reveals trophic interactions and evolutionary history of uncultured protists. Science 6 May 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6030 pp. 714-717.
doi|RU news article|Science Daily|Futurity

Jeferson Gross, Debashish Bhattacharya. 2011. Endosymbiont or host: who drove mitochondrial and plastid evolution? Biology Direct, 6:12. Published on 19 February 2011.doi|pubmed|pdf