Penium genome/gene sequences
Penium margaritaceum is a unicellular placoderm desmid (family: Peniaceae; Order: Zygnematales; class: Zygnematophyceae) that is commonly found
in shallow freshwater wetlands of temperate climates. It is distinguished by a cylindrical shape (17 µm in width at the cell center with a varying
length of 125-250 µm) and the presence of only a primary cell wall. The outer surface of the cell wall is distinguished by a series of projections
of calcium-complexed pectin. Recent studies based on biochemical and immunobinding analyses have shown that Penium cell wall constituents are
notably similar to those of many land plants (Sørensen
et al., 2011). This and other features indicate that Penium may serve as a valuable model organism to elucidate the evolution
of land plants (Sørensen et al., 2014),
specifically in the identification of adaptations that were critical to the successful colonization of land by the ancestral stock of Penium and
other charophytes.
We have sequenced the genome and transcriptomes of Penium margaritaceum, an archetype of the Zygnematophyceae with the simplest of body plans.
The specimen used for sequencing was collected from a shallow, transient wetland in Saratoga Springs, New York (Lat: 43.34o N; Lon:
73.61o W) in 2002 and axenic cultures were established at the Skidmore College Algal Collection where it is currently maintained. It is also
available at the University of Texas Culture Collection.
If you use the Penium genome/gene data, please cite this paper:
Jiao C, Sørensen I, Sun X, Sun H, Behar H, Alseekh S, Philippe G, Lopez KP, Sun L, Reed R, Jeon S, Kiyonami R, Zhang S, Fernie AR, Brumer H, Domozych DS, Fei Z, Rose JKC
(2020) The Penium margaritaceum genome: Hallmarks of the origins of land plants. Cell 181:1097-1111
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