Diversity and evolution of marine phytoplankton

Nathalie Simon (1) , Anne-Lise Cras , Elodie Foulon (2) , Rodolphe Lemée (3)

1 DIPO - Diversité et Interactions au sein du Plancton Océanique
2 AD2M - Adaptation et diversité en milieu marin
3 LOV - Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche

Marine phytoplankton organisms account for more than 45% of the photosynthetic net primary production on Earth. They are distributed across many of the major clades of the tree of life and include prokaryotes, and eukaryotes that acquired photosynthesis through the process of endosymbiosis. If the number of extant described species is relatively low compared to the diversity of the terrestrial plants, recent insights into the genetic diversity of natural assemblages have revealed a large unsuspected diversity at different taxonomic levels. Wide infra-specific diversity is also being discovered in many widespread and well known morphological species. This review summarizes data obtained in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology and genomics that have improved our understanding of the biodiversity and evolution of marine phytoplankton. To cite this article: N. Simon et al., C R. Biologies 332 (2009). (C) 2008 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Mots clés: Marine phytoplankton; Diatoms; Dinoflagellates; Haptophytes; Prasinophytes; Cyanobacteria; Evolution

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Sciences de l'environnement

Nathalie Simon, Anne-Lise Cras, Elodie Foulon, Rodolphe Lemée. Diversity and evolution of marine phytoplankton. Comptes Rendus Biologies, 2009, 332 (2-3), pp.159-170. ⟨10.1016/j.crvi.2008.09.009⟩. ⟨hal-01254022⟩