【Institution】: University of Gothenburg, Sweden

【Host】: Dr. Dazhi Wang   【Contact】: Lin Lin

Speaker: Dr. Mats Töpel

Researcher, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg

2010 Ph.D., University of Gothenburg

Abstract:

Skeletonema is a cosmopolitan genus of diatoms common in coastal waters worldwide. Skeletonema marinoi is the only species encountered in Scandinavian waters where it is an important primary producer that occurs throughout the year. It is especially prominent during spring when it forms extensive blooms. Under adverse hydrographic conditions, S. marinoi forms resting stages that sediment at the sea floor. Concentrations of these resting cells reach 50,000 propagules per gram of sediment and can contain viable cells that are more than a century old. These can be germinated and kept in monoclonal lab-cultures that enable microevolutionary studies of genomic and phenotypic changes. To enable this type of analyses we are using PacBio Single Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing and the hierarchical genome assembly process implemented in FALCON to generate a reference genome sequence for S. marinoi. In this talk I present the workflow and current state of this genome project as well as suggest solutions to difficulties involved in this type of analyses.