Genetic Diversity, Morphological Uniformity and Polyketide Production in Dinoflagellates (Amphidinium, Dinoflagellata)

Dinoflagellates are an intriguing group of eukaryotes, showing many unusual morphological and genetic features. Some groups of dinoflagellates are morphologically highly uniform, despite indications of genetic diversity. The species Amphidinium carterae is abundant and cosmopolitan in marine environments, grows easily in culture, and has therefore been used as a ‘model’ dinoflagellate in research into dinoflagellate genetics, polyketide production and photosynthesis. We have investigated the diversity of ‘cryptic’ species of Amphidinium that are morphologically similar to A. carterae, including the very similar species Amphidinium massartii, based on light and electron microscopy, two nuclear gene regions (LSU rDNA and ITS rDNA) and one mitochondrial gene region (cytochrome b). We found that six genetically distinct cryptic species (clades) exist within the species A. massartii and four within A. carterae, and that these clades differ from one another in molecular sequences at levels comparable to other dinoflagellate species, genera or even families. Using primers based on an alignment of alveolate ketosynthase sequences, we isolated partial ketosynthase genes from several Amphidinium species. We compared these genes to known dinoflagellate ketosynthase genes and investigated the evolution and diversity of the strains of Amphidinium that produce them

Self-Regulation: Learning Across Disciplines

The capacity to self-regulate is a key developmental ability that has become a focal point for research across multiple disciplines. Yet interdisciplinary collaboration on self-regulation is rare and the term is often applied in different ways across studies. Drawing on literature from psychology, medical sciences, sociology, and economics, this article provides a synthesis of disciplinary approaches to research on self-regulation. A review of search returns from one prominent database per discipline is used to investigate overlap and divergence on the topic. This review argues that interdisciplinary collaboration has the potential to integrate perspectives on self-regulation into a more coherent body of work, resulting in advances that could not be achieved through any one discipline alone. The review also identifies and discusses three current impediments to collaboration: terminology, measurement, and disciplinary conventions.Irish Research Counci