Created 25/01/2018 Updated 30/04/2018
25 Jan
2018

The Tara Oceans expedition (2009-2013) has enabled the collection of plankton samples in all of the world's oceans on board the schooner Tara, and the creation of catalogues of species and genes on a scale never before undertaken. Continuing the analysis and exploitation of the biggest database compiled on the planktonic ecosystem, the teams from the CEA, CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) and the French graduate school ENS, among others (1), have just reached a new milestone by analysing the expression of over 100 million genes belonging to complex organisms, from microscopic algae to small planktonic animals. These teams have demonstrated that very different genes express themselves depending on the water temperature or the concentration in nutrients of the oceanic areas studied. Half of these genes are unknown, indicating that the ocean - which is already a marvellous breeding ground of biodiversity - harbours, at the same time, an enormous potential of genetic functions awaiting discovery. By using isolation and characterisation methods of isolated cells, the researchers have, more specifically, been able to explore the role of the genes present in a little-studied, uncultivated but very abundant compartment of the plankton - the first link in a long food chain. These results are the subject of two articles published in the journal Nature Communications on 22 and 25 January 2018.

Notes :

1 Sorbonne University, Evry Val-d'Essonne University, Paris-Saclay University

Bibliography

A global ocean atlas of eukaryotic genes, Quentin Carradec, Eric Pelletier§, Corinne Da Silva, Adriana Alberti, Yoann Seeleuthner, Romain Blanc-Mathieu, Gipsi Lima-Mendez, Fabio Rocha, Leila Tirichine, Karine Labadie, Amos Kirilovsky, Alexis Bertrand, Stefan Engelen, Mohammed-Amin Madoui, Raphaël Méheust, Julie Poulain, Sarah Romac, Daniel J. Richter, Genki Yoshikawa, Céline Dimier, Stefanie Kandels-Lewis, Marc Picheral, Sarah Searson, Tara Oceans Coordinators, Olivier Jaillon, Jean-Marc Aury, Eric Karsenti, Matthew B. Sullivan, Shinichi Sunagawa, Peer Bork, Fabrice Not, Pascal Hingamp, Jeroen Raes, Lionel Guidi, Hiroyuki Ogata, Colomban de Vargas, Daniele Iudicone, Chris Bowler§, Patrick Wincker§ (§ : corresponding authors), Nature Communications, 25 janvier 2018.
 

Single-cell genomics of multiple uncultured stramenopiles reveals underestimated functional diversity across oceans, Yoann Seeleuthner, Samuel Mondy, Vincent Lombard, Quentin Carradec, Eric Pelletier, Marc Wessner, Jade Leconte, Jean-François Mangot, Julie Poulain, Karine Labadie, Ramiro Logares, Shinichi Sunagawa, Véronique de Berardinis, Marcel Salanoubat, Céline Dimier, Stefanie Kandels-Lewis, Marc Picheral, Sarah Searson, Tara Oceans Coordinators, Stephane Pesant, Nicole Poulton, Ramunas Stepanauskas, Peer Bork, Chris Bowler, Pascal Hingam, Matthew B. Sullivan, Daniele Iudicone, Ramon Massana, Jean-Marc Aury, Bernard Henrissat, Eric Karsenti, Olivier Jaillon, Mike Sieracki§, Colomban de Vargas§, Patrick Wincker§ (§ Corresponding authors), doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02235-3, Nature Communications, 22 janvier 2018

Contact:

Colomban de Vargas, c2vargas@gmail.com