Phylogenetic Placement of diatom genera using whole mitochondrial genomes

Abstract

"Diatoms are a diverse group of single-cell eukaryotic algae with cell walls made of silica. These algae can occupy a variety of aquatic niches and play significant roles in carbon and oxygen cycling. Previous attempts at understanding the evolutionary history of diatoms have presented conflicting results. In this study, we have focused on the mitochondria of diatoms and have described 14 diatom mitochondrial genomes to explore the utility of these genomes in phylogenetics. The phylogenetic reconstruction based on protein coding regions of the diatom mitochondria resolved similar patterns evidenced by using chloroplast. However, discrepancies still exist between the two, demonstrating the need for further sampling. Our study also investigates the gene organization among these genomes to identify patterns across species and found that closely related species seem to have a conserved gene order."