Horizontal gene transfer (HGT; also known as lateral gene transfer) has had an important
role in eukaryotic genome evolution, but its importance is often overshadowed by the greater …

Plastids and mitochondria each arose from a single endosymbiotic event and share many
similarities in how they were reduced and integrated with their host. However, the …

Plastids (chloroplasts) have long been recognized to have originated by endosymbiosis of a
cyanobacterium, but their subsequent evolutionary history has proved complex because …

The ancestors of modern cyanobacteria invented O2-generating photosynthesis some 3.6
billion years ago. The conversion of water and CO2 into energy-rich sugars and O2 slowly …

Tremendous chemical diversity is the hallmark of plants and is supported by highly complex
biochemical machinery. Plant metabolic enzymes originated and were transferred from …

Molecular sequencing has helped resolve the phylogenetic relationships amongst the
diverse groups of algal, fungal-like and protist organisms that constitute the Chromalveolate …

A comprehensive understanding of the origin and spread of plastids remains an important
yet elusive goal in the field of eukaryotic evolution. Combined with the discovery of new …

The phylum of dinoflagellates is characterized by many unusual and interesting genomic
and physiological features, the imprint of which, in its immense genome, remains elusive …

Background Diatoms are unicellular algae responsible for approximately 20% of global
carbon fixation. Their evolution by secondary endocytobiosis resulted in a complex cellular …

Recent advances in resolving the tree of eukaryotes are converging on a model composed
of a few large hypothetical 'supergroups', each comprising a diversity of primarily microbial …