Abstract

Plankton use solar energy to drive the nutrient cycles that make the planet habitable for larger organisms. We can now explore the diversity and functions of plankton using genomics, revealing the gene repertoires associated with survival in the oceans. Such studies will help us to appreciate the sensitivity of ocean systems and of the ocean's response to climate change, improving the predictive power of climate models.

1. CNRS UMR8186, Department of Biology, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, Paris, France.
2. Stazione Zoologica 'Anton Dohrn,' Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
3. School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA.
4. Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 3103 Biomolecular Sciences Building, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.

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