News and Events

Genome cooperative bioinformaticist Udi ZelZion contributes to paper in PNAS in collaboration with the Falkowski group.
Jeana L. Drake, Tali Mass, Liti Haramaty, Ehud Zelzion, Debashish Bhattacharya, and Paul G. Falkowski. Proteomic analysis of skeletal organic matrix from the stony coral Stylophora pistillata. PNAS 2013 110 (10) 3788-3793; published ahead of print February 19, 2013.
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Former lab member CX Chan publishes three papers and gets research staff member job at the University of Queensland.
Chan CX, Blouin NA, Zhuang Y, Zäuner S, Prochnik SE, Lindquist E, Lin S, Benning C, Lohr M, Yarish C, Gantt E, Grossman AR, Lu S, Müller K, Stiller J, Brawley SH and Bhattacharya D (2012). Porphyra (Bangiophyceae) transcriptomes provide insights into red algal development and metabolism. Journal of Phycology, 48(6): 1328-1342. doi| data

Chan CX, Soares MB, Bonaldo MF, Wisecaver JH, Hackett JD, Anderson DM, Erdner DL and Bhattacharya D (2012). Analysis of Alexandrium tamarense (Dinophyceae) genes reveals the complex evolutionary history of a microbial eukaryote. Journal of Phycology, 48(5): 1130-1142.
doi|supporting material Chan CX, Zäuner S, Wheeler GL, Grossman AR, Prochnik SE, Blouin NA, Zhuang Y, Benning C, Berg GM, Yarish C, Eriksen RL, Klein AS, Lin S, Levine I, Brawley SH and Bhattacharya D (2012). Analysis of Porphyra membrane transporters demonstrates gene transfer among photosynthetic eukaryotes and numerous sodium-coupled transport systems. Plant Physiology, 158(4): 2001-2012.
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Article in Smithsonianmag.com explains Bhattacharya lab findings on the origin of photosynthesis.
How Did Plants Develop Photosynthesis? Smithsonian magazine, March 2013. By Henry Fountain.

Debashish presents the first Fran and Max Hommersand distinguished lecture in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
"Disentangeling the Convoluted History of Algal Genomes"

Bhattacharya lab publication has been awarded the MBE Citation Classic designation
Yoon, H.S., J.D. Hackett, C. Ciniglia, G. Pinto, and D. Bhattacharya, D. 2004. A molecular timeline for the origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 21:809-818.
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MBE Citation Classics (2013 Edition) http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/1/3.full

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

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

Ball, S.G., A. Subtil, D. Bhattacharya, A. Moustafa, A.P.M. Weber, L. Gehre, C. Colleoni, M.-C. Arias, U. Cenci, and D. Dauvillée. 2013. Metabolic effectors secreted by bacterial pathogens: essential facilitators of plastid endosymbiosis? The Plant Cell. Jan;25(1):7-21
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Bhattacharya, D., D.C. Price, C. Bicep, E. Bapteste, M. Sarwade, V.D. Rajah, and H. S. Yoon. 2013. Identification of a marine cyanophage in a protist single cell metagenome assembly. Journal of Phycology Volume 49, Issue 1, pages 207–212, February.
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Facchinelli, F., M. Pribil, U. Oster, N. Ebert, D. Bhattacharya, D. Leister, and A. Weber. 2013. Proteomic analysis of the Cyanophora paradoxa muroplast provides clues on early events in plastid endosymbiosis. Planta: 2013 Feb;237(2):637-51, epub ahead of print
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Steiner, J.M., D. Bhattacharya, and W. Löffelhardt. 2012. Conservative sorting in the muroplasts of Cyanophora paradoxa: a reevaluation based on the completed genome sequence. Symbiosis 57: epub ahead of print
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Georgi, L., J. Johnson-Cicalese, J. Honig, S. Parankush Das, V.D. Rajah, D. Bhattacharya, N. Bassil, L.J. Rowland, J. Polashock, and N. Vorsa. 2012. The first genetic map of the American cranberry: exploration of synteny conservation and quantitative trait loci. Theoretical and Applied Genetics: epub ahead of print
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Gross, J., and D. Bhattacharya. 2012. Evolution: Eukaryotes. Encyclopedia fo Genetics, 2nd Edition, Elsevier.

Chan CX, Soares MB, Bonaldo MF, Wisecaver JH, Hackett JD, Anderson DM, Erdner DL, Bhattacharya D. 2012. Analysis of Alexandrium tamarense (Dinophyceae) genes reveals the complex evolutionary history of a microbial eukaryote. Journal of Phycology 48:1130-1142.
doi

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. 2012. Dozens of toxin-related genes are expressed in a non-toxic strain of the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa circularisquama. Mol Biol Evol (2012) 29(6): 1503-1506. doi.

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.