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Numerous cellular functions including respiration require iron. Plants and phytoplankton must also maintain the iron-rich photosynthetic electron transport chain, which most likely evolved in the iron-replete reducing environments of the Proterozoic ocean [1]. Iron bioavailability has drastically decreased in the contemporary ocean [1], most likely selecting for the evolution of efficient iron acquisition mechanisms among modern phytoplankton. Mesoscale iron fertilization experiments often result in blooms dominated by diatoms [2], indicating that diatoms have adaptations that allow survival in iron-limited waters and rapid multiplication when iron becomes available. Yet the genetic and molecular bases are unclear, as very few iron uptake genes have been functionally characterized from marine eukaryotic phytoplankton, and large portions of diatom iron starvation transcriptomes are genes encoding unknown functions …