Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

MICROBIOLOGY

A genetic toolbox for marine protists

Nature Methods volume 17, pages 469–470 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

A resource of detailed DNA delivery and expression protocols for marine protists will enable new studies to understand the fundamental and ancestral features of eukaryotic cells.

Microbial life is most often associated with prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea). However, enormous biological diversity lies in protists, or eukaryotic microbes. For much of the history of biological investigation, protists have been the focus of far less intense research than complex multicellular eukaryotes. However, over the last twenty years the molecular biological revolution has brought the importance of protists to light. Faktorová et al.1 now provide a set of tools for the genetic manipulation of diverse protists, which will enable many new types of studies.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Genetic transformation across the tree of eukaryotes.

References

  1. Faktorová, D. et al. Nat. Methods https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-020-0796-x (2020).

  2. Worden, A. Z. et al. Science 347, 1257594 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R. & Milo, R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 6506–6511 (2018).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. de Vargas, C. et al. Science 348, 1261605 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Simpson, A. G. B. & Roger, A. J. Curr. Biol. 14, R693–R696 (2004).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, M. W. et al. Genome Biol. Evol. 10, 427–433 (2018).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Burki, F., Roger, A. J., Brown, M. W. & Simpson, A. G. B. Trends Ecol. Evol. 35, 43–55 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ruiz-Trillo, I. et al. Curr. Biol. 23, 113–118 (2007).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Keeling, P. J. et al. PLoS Biol. 12, e1001889 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hinnen, A., Hicks, J. B. & Fink, G. R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 75, 1929–1933 (1978).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA

    Matthew W. Brown & Alexander K. Tice

  2. Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing & Biotechnology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, United States

    Matthew W. Brown & Alexander K. Tice

Authors
  1. Matthew W. Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alexander K. Tice
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew W. Brown.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Brown, M.W., Tice, A.K. A genetic toolbox for marine protists. Nat Methods 17, 469–470 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-020-0794-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-020-0794-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing