Home • Ochromonadaceae sp. CCMP2298 v1.0
Ochromonadaceae sp. CCMP2298
Photo credit: Niels Daugbjerg

CCMP2298 has been sequenced as part of the Arctic Chromist project which includes 5 nanoflagellates from divergent lineages. All of these algae were isolated from the same region of the Arctic and a goal of the project is to investigate the potential for genetic signatures of algae living under perennially cold conditions. The samples for isolation were collected during the Arctic summer with 24h of light as part of the North Water Polynya Study (NOW) in Northern Baffin Bay. The surface waters of Northern Baffin Bay, which is between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, are typically from  -1.7 – 2 °C. All algae were isolated using a dilution technique where subsamples of starting sample were placed initially in 6- or 12-well multiwell plates and transferred to different media when swimming cells were detected using an inverted microscope. Resulting unialgal cultures have been maintained in natural aged and filtered seawater amended with standard media.

The chrysophyte (CCMP2298) was originally isolated from a floating ice sample with visible brown coloring, which had been collected by Cecilie von Quillfeldt in June 1998 (77.0014° N  77.2383° W). The broken fast ice sample was collected using a bucket by Dr. von Quillfeldt, who was suspended in a basket from the Canadian Coast Icebreaker CCGS Pierre Radisson. The culture has been maintained in seawater at a salinity of 30.

Chrysophytes are classified as stramenopiles and are distantly related to diatoms. The group is polyphyletic and more common in freshwaters compared to marine waters. The 18S rRNA phylogeny indicates that CCMP2298 distantly branches with one other  undescribed chrysophyte culture CCMP1393 and both  have been provisionally classified as in the Ochromonadaceae. CCMP2298 is provisionally considered Arctic specific. 

Additional transcriptomes of the culture, where CCMP2298 was grown under different culture conditions (urea as a nitrogen source, nitrate as a nitrogen source, low (18) and high salinity (36)) are available as part of the Marine Microbial Eukaryote Transcription Project .

Currently the culture is being taxonomically described and a complete description will be available on publication.

(Written by C. Lovejoy, who initially isolated the culture and has maintained it in culture)

Genome Reference(s)