Okinawa researchers succeed for the first time in decoding the whole genome of a huge unicellular organism 'sea grape'

by 663highland

' Ocean grape ', famous for its Okinawan cuisine, is a kind of green algae that measures 10 to 20 cm in length, but in fact it is made of only one cell that contains many nuclei. 'A living thing'. Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) has succeeded in decoding the whole genome of this sea grape, and has published a paper in the British scientific journal DNA Research.

siphonous macroalgal genomes suggestives convergent functions of homeobox genes in algae and land plants | DNA Research | Oxford Academic
https://academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/advance-article/doi/10.1093/dnares/dsz002/5419551

Genome-wide decoding of huge single-cell organism 'sea grape' | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University OIST
https://www.oist.jp/en/news-center/press-releases/33757

Many of the sea grapes on the market are contrary to their names and are not grown in the sea as natural or aquaculture, but are grown in land-based vinyl houses like fruits and vegetables. However, there is also a problem that the problem of growth can not be solved even if the cultivation method of other plants and seaweeds which are multicellular organisms is adopted as it is with respect to sea grapes which are single cell organisms. Dr. Asuka Arimoto of the OIST Marine Genomics Unit , who led the research, decided to work on this research to solve the above problems. Before Arimoto et al. Worked on the research, there was no research on genome sequencing of sea grapes.

The research team extracted DNA from sea grapes cultured in Onna village fishery cooperative association in Okinawa Prefecture, and deciphered the whole genome sequence with the next generation genome sequencer owned by OIST. As a result, it was found that the size of the genome of sea grapes is the smallest class of 28 million base pairs among farmed and cultivated agricultural products, and the number of genes is only about 9,000. In addition, it has been suggested that sea grapes are completely different organisms from land plants such as vegetables and fruits, but that similar genes may be involved in growth.

As a result of the research, the unique formation of sea grapes 'places the protein at the required site by a mechanism different from multicellular organisms and fine unicellular organisms, or the cell nucleus itself controls the transport of substances' Was shown to have been realized. In addition, it is said that it was suggested that the possibility that sea grapes acquired unusual hugeness and complexity as a single-celled organism might be the key to increase of TALE type homeobox gene like land plants.

The researchers say that the results of this study can be used to determine the genetic cause of stunted sea grapes. In addition, in the Mediterranean and Pan-Pacific, sea grapes and related seaweed alien species threaten local organisms, which may also help to combat these reproductions. Whole genome analysis of sea grapes is said to have the potential to be useful for the future development of areas other than Okinawa as well as the development of Okinawa.