Thalassiosiraceae is a family of diatoms in the order Thalassiosirales. The family of Thalassiosiraceae have the unique quality of having a flat valve face. These diatoms are common in brackish, nearshore, and open-ocean habitats, with approximately the same number of freshwater and marine species. Thalassiosiraceae are a centric diatom full of fultoportula. These can often be mistaken for Areola. These belong to many diatom families and can be found in different forms such as the different Areolae that can be found on ''Navicula or Gomphoneis known as lineolate and punctate.'' Unlike naviculaceae who are symmetrical in shape some Thalassiosiraceae take on being tangentially undulate. The species ''

Thalassiosira pseudonana ''Thalassiosira pseudonana'' is a species of marine centric diatoms. It was chosen as the first eukaryotic marine phytoplankton for whole genome sequencing. ''T. pseudonana'' was selected for this study because it is a model for diatom physiology ...

'' was chosen as the first

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

marine

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

for whole

genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...

. ''T. pseudonana'' was selected for this study because it is a model for diatom physiology studies, belongs to a genus widely distributed throughout the world's oceans, and has a relatively small genome at 34 mega

base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

s. Scientists are researching diatom light absorption, using the marine diatom ''Thalassiosira''.

References

* * * * * Thalassiosirales Diatom families {{Diatom-stub