藻类基因组研究进展

Advances on the genome of algae

藻类具有复杂多样的进化历史和生物学特征,不仅在生态系统中扮演着重要角色,而且具有许多独特的基因和生物过程。高通量测序技术在藻类研究领域中的应用,大大促进了藻类基因组学和转录组学的发展,丰富了藻类基因信息。文章对近年来藻类基因组和转录组的研究进展进行综述,总结了已完成全基因组测序的不同藻类基因组的特点并进行比较,对表达序列标签(ESTs)、微阵列和转录组测序技术在藻类转录组研究中的应用做了简要阐述,主要介绍了藻类基因表达以及小RNA的研究进展,并对该领域可能的发展方向及存在的问题进行了展望。

Algae possess complex and diverse biology and evolutionary history. They play an important role in the eco- system. A mass of unique genes and biological processes also make them attractive. The application of high-throughput sequencing approaches to algal research has greatly contributed to the development of algal genomics and transcriptomics, as well as enriched the gene information of algae. In this article, we summarize the advances of algal genomics and tran- scriptomics, describe and compare the characteristics of different algae genomes, and introduce the application of expres- sion sequence tags （ESTs）, microarray and RNA sequencing technique to algal transcriptomics research. Furthermore, the advances of algal gene expression and small RNA are also reviewed in detail. At last, we discuss the challenges and future development of this area.