Research project Identifying a new marine endosymbiosis as a model to study the origin of plastids

According to phylogenetic analyses these organisms are most closely related to non-photosynthetic, however they are considered photosynthetic based on microscopy observations showing the presence of auto fluorescent spheroid bodies reminiscent of plastids. Plastids are photosynthetic organelles of plankton. The aim of this project is to determine the identity, function, and metabolic integration of these spheroid bodies.

The external grant for this 3 600 000 SEK, from VR and it is a funded collaboration with Fabien Burki at Uppsala University, Tom Delmont at Genoscope and SHMI for monthly sampling.