RESEARCH ARTICLE Morphological and transcriptomic evidence for ammonium induction of sexual reproduction in Thalassiosira pseudonana and other centric diatoms Eric R. Moore1, Briana S. Bullington1, Alexandra J. Weisberg2, Yuan Jiang3, Jeff Chang2, Kimberly H. Halsey1* 1 Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America, 2 Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of a1111111111 America, 3 Department of Statistics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America a1111111111 a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract The reproductive strategy of diatoms includes asexual and sexual phases, but in many spe- cies, including the model centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, sexual reproduction has OPEN ACCESS never been observed. Furthermore, the environmental factors that trigger sexual reproduc- Citation: Moore ER, Bullington BS, Weisberg AJ, tion in diatoms are not understood. Although genome sequences of a few diatoms are avail- Jiang Y, Chang J, Halsey KH (2017) Morphological able, little is known about the molecular basis for sexual reproduction. Here we show that and transcriptomic evidence for ammonium induction of sexual reproduction in Thalassiosira ammonium reliably induces the key sexual morphologies, including oogonia, auxospores, pseudonana and other centric diatoms. PLoS ONE and spermatogonia, in two strains of T. pseudonana, T. weissflogii, and Cyclotella cryptica. 12(7): e0181098. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. RNA sequencing revealed 1,274 genes whose expression patterns changed when T. pseu- pone.0181098 donana was induced into sexual reproduction by ammonium. Some of the induced genes Editor: Douglas A. Campbell, Mount Allison are linked to meiosis or encode flagellar structures of heterokont and cryptophyte algae.