A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.

An alga that abandoned photosynthesis? This Primer explores a PLOS Biology study showing that a single horizontal gene transfer event allowed the diatom Nitzschia sing1 to evolve a complete enzymatic machinery to break down alginate from brown algae, unlocking a new ecological niche.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Andreas Sichert
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-04-01
Series:PLoS Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003072
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author Andreas Sichert
author_facet Andreas Sichert
author_sort Andreas Sichert
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description An alga that abandoned photosynthesis? This Primer explores a PLOS Biology study showing that a single horizontal gene transfer event allowed the diatom Nitzschia sing1 to evolve a complete enzymatic machinery to break down alginate from brown algae, unlocking a new ecological niche.
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language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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spelling doaj-art-e514b84942fa4c1ca1be98920758b8d62025-08-20T02:16:29ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852025-04-01234e300307210.1371/journal.pbio.3003072A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.Andreas SichertAn alga that abandoned photosynthesis? This Primer explores a PLOS Biology study showing that a single horizontal gene transfer event allowed the diatom Nitzschia sing1 to evolve a complete enzymatic machinery to break down alginate from brown algae, unlocking a new ecological niche.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003072
spellingShingle Andreas Sichert
A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
PLoS Biology
title A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
title_full A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
title_fullStr A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
title_full_unstemmed A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
title_short A single enzyme becomes a Swiss Army knife.
title_sort single enzyme becomes a swiss army knife
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003072
work_keys_str_mv AT andreassichert asingleenzymebecomesaswissarmyknife
AT andreassichert singleenzymebecomesaswissarmyknife