Host and endosymbiont genomes from hosts in the family Rhopalodiaceae, primarily the genera Epithemia and Rhopalodia Genome sequencing and assembly
A scientific collaboration between three U.S. universities and seven universities, research institutes and museums in China, India, Indonesia and Argentina will gather data from a variety of sources, including entire genomes of the chloroplast and mitochondria of the diatom hosts, cell wall morphology of the diatoms, and the entire genome of the cyanobacterial symbiont (also called a spheroid body) to address three main aims: 1) the evolutionary origins and diversification of the diatom order Rhopalodiales, including when the endosymbiont was acquired during diversification of this lineage; 2) the sister taxon of the Rhopalodiales, and the extent of cryptic diversity among cosmopolitan rhopalodian taxa; 3) the coevolution of host and symbiont. The project will integrate information on the group from herbarium collections in the United States, Europe and South America for both extant and fossil taxa. Integrated phylogenetics, functional genomics and taxonomic revisionary work will produce a time-calibrated phylogeny that will inform a revised classification system for the group.