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Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, June 2009, p. 249-299, Vol. 73, No. 2
1092-2172/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MMBR.00035-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Ecological Genomics of Marine Picocyanobacteria{dagger}

D. J. Scanlan,1* M. Ostrowski,1 S. Mazard,1 A. Dufresne,2,3,4 L. Garczarek,2,3 W. R. Hess,5 A. F. Post,6,7 M. Hagemann,8 I. Paulsen,9 and F. Partensky2,3

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom,1 UPMC-Université Paris 06, Station Biologique, BP 74, 29682 Roscoff Cedex, France,2 CNRS, UMR 7144, Groupe Plancton Océanique, BP 74, 29682 Roscoff Cedex, France,3 Université Rennes 1, UMR 6553 EcoBio, IFR90/FR2116, CAREN, 35042 Rennes, France,4 University Freiburg, Faculty of Biology, Schänzlestrasse 1, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany,5 H. Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory, The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science, POB 469, Eilat 88103, Israel,6 Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts,7 Universität Rostock, Inst. Biowissenschaften, Pflanzenphysiologie, Einsteinstr. 3, D-18051 Rostock, Germany,8 Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia9

Summary: Marine picocyanobacteria of the genera Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus numerically dominate the picophytoplankton of the world ocean, making a key contribution to global primary production. Prochlorococcus was isolated around 20 years ago and is probably the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth. The genus comprises specific ecotypes which are phylogenetically distinct and differ markedly in their photophysiology, allowing growth over a broad range of light and nutrient conditions within the 45°N to 40°S latitudinal belt that they occupy. Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus are closely related, together forming a discrete picophytoplankton clade, but are distinguishable by their possession of dissimilar light-harvesting apparatuses and differences in cell size and elemental composition. Synechococcus strains have a ubiquitous oceanic distribution compared to that of Prochlorococcus strains and are characterized by phylogenetically discrete lineages with a wide range of pigmentation. In this review, we put our current knowledge of marine picocyanobacterial genomics into an environmental context and present previously unpublished genomic information arising from extensive genomic comparisons in order to provide insights into the adaptations of these marine microbes to their environment and how they are reflected at the genomic level.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 24 76 528363. Fax: 44 24 76 523701. E-mail: d.j.scanlan{at}warwick.ac.uk

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mmbr.asm.org/.

Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, June 2009, p. 249-299, Vol. 73, No. 2
1092-2172/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MMBR.00035-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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