Diatom heterotrophy on brown algal polysaccharides emerged through horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and neofunctionalization.

A major goal of evolutionary biology is to identify the genetic basis for the emergence of complex adaptive traits. Diatoms are ancestrally photosynthetic microalgae. However, in the genus Nitzschia, loss of photosynthesis led to a group of free-living secondary heterotrophs whose manner of acquirin...

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Bibliographic Details

Published in:	PLoS Biology
Main Authors:	Zeng Hao Lim, Peng Zheng, Christopher Quek, Minou Nowrousian, Finn L Aachmann, Gregory Jedd
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-04-01
Online Access:	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003038