µgreen-db

Photosynthetic eukaryotic microalgae and prokaryotic cyanobacteria are key ecological players in biogeochemical cycles both in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. To study the evolution and ecology of these organisms in situ, molecular tools are necessary to complement the historical and widely applied technique of morphological observations.

Here, we set up a reference database for the plastidial 23S rRNA gene used to characterise the group of photosynthetic eukaryotic algae and prokaryotic cyanobacteria. The sequences were retrieved from either generalist (NCBI, SILVA) or Comparative RNA Web (CRW) databases, in addition to using a more original approach involving recursive BLASTS searches to obtain the best sequence recovery.

At present, this database, called µgreen-db, includes 2,326 plastidial 23S rRNA sequences spanning four Kingdoms (Eubacteria, Chromista, Protozoa and Plantae) encompassing 442 unique genera and 736 species of eukaryotic algae, cyanobacteria and non-vascular land plants.