Systems Biology Programme Dr. Chuan Ku

31/03/202314:00MARIE CURIESystems Biology ProgrammeDr. Chuan KuInstitute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB), Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan"Genomic insights into the biology of calcifying microalgae”Host: Bartomeus Cistaré, MagalíAbstract:Marine phytoplankton account for about half of the global carbon dioxide fixation and have primary productivity comparable to that of land plants. One major group of marine phytoplankton is the calcifying microalgae — coccolithophores — that are widely distributed across global oceans from the tropical to subpolar regions. In addition to their photosynthetic activity, these unicellular algae are capable of fixing dissolved inorganic carbon into calcium carbonate plates called coccoliths and thus play a unique role in biogeochemical cycling of carbon. This talk will give an overview of how genomic and other omic data improve our understanding of their biology by elucidating the variation across strains, genomic compartments (nucleus, mitochondrion and plastid), and life history stages.