ArticlePloS one2012
Possible role of horizontal gene transfer in the colonization of sea ice by algae.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- Widespread horizontal transfer and strong selection enhance microbial adaptation in Antarctic soils.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Adaptive restructuring of the microbiota promotes overwintering survival of the tick Dermacentor silvarum.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Single-cell transcriptomics reveals lateral transfers of multiple functional genes from prokaryotes to free-living ciliated protists in detrital food webs.Marine life science & technology · 2026Article
- Genome-resolved biogeography of Phaeocystales, cosmopolitan bloom-forming algae.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Ice gliding diatoms establish record-low temperature limits for motility in a eukaryotic cell.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A horizontally transferred bacterial gene aids the freezing tolerance of Antarctic bdelloid rotifers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Shotgun metagenomics reveals the flexibility and diversity of Arctic marine microbiomes.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Variations on a theme: non-canonical DUF3494 ice-binding proteins.Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions · 2024Article
- Lessons from Extremophiles: Functional Adaptations and Genomic Innovations across the Eukaryotic Tree of Life.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Experimental evolution for cell biology.Trends in cell biology · 2023Review
- Convergent evolution and horizontal gene transfer in Arctic Ocean microalgae.Life science alliance · 2023Article
- A DUF3494 ice-binding protein with a root cap domain in a streptophyte glacier ice alga.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Diatoms and Their Microbiomes in Complex and Changing Polar Oceans.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Characterization of microbial antifreeze protein with intermediate activity suggests that a bound-water network is essential for hyperactivity.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Draft genome sequence of the Antarctic green algaiScience · 2021Article
- Ice-Binding Proteins Associated with an Antarctic Cyanobacterium,Applied and environmental microbiology · 2021Article
- Revealing the Characteristics of the Antarctic Snow AlgaFrontiers in plant science · 2021Article
- Can Halophilic and Psychrophilic Microorganisms Modify the Freezing/Melting Curve of Cold Salty Solutions? Implications for Mars Habitability.Astrobiology · 2020Article
- Batch-Learning Self-Organizing Map Identifies Horizontal Gene Transfer Candidates and Their Origins in Entire Genomes.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Diatoms and other algae not only survive, but thrive in sea ice. Among sea ice diatoms, all species examined so far produce ice-binding proteins (IBPs), whereas no such proteins are found in non-ice-associated diatoms, which strongly suggests that IBPs are essential for survival in ice. The restricted occurrence also raises the question of how the IBP genes were acquired. Proteins with similar sequences and ice-binding activities are produced by ice-associated bacteria, and so it has previously been speculated that the genes were acquired by horizontal transfer (HGT) from bacteria. Here we report several new IBP sequences from three types of ice algae, which together with previously determined sequences reveal a phylogeny that is completely incongruent with algal phylogeny, and that can be most easily explained by HGT. HGT is also supported by the finding that the closest matches to the algal IBP genes are all bacterial genes and that the algal IBP genes lack introns. We also describe a highly freeze-tolerant bacterium from the bottom layer of Antarctic sea ice that produces an IBP with 47% amino acid identity to a diatom IBP from the same layer, demonstrating at least an opportunity for gene transfer. Together, these results suggest that the success of diatoms and other algae in sea ice can be at least partly attributed to their acquisition of prokaryotic IBP genes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.