Small unicellular marine organisms known as diatoms are responsible for nearly 20% of carbon dioxide fixation (CO₂) by photosynthesis on our planet. But how do these microalgae come to dominate the world of photosynthetic marine organisms ?  An international research collaboration involving the participation of the Laboratory of Genetics and Physiology of Microalgae of the University of Liege, has demonstrated a cellular mechanisms behind the impressive photosynthetic activity of diatoms. This research was the subject of a published article in the American journal Nature.

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1) Benjamin Bailleul, Nicolas Berne, Omer Murik, Dimitris Petroutsos, Judit Prihoda, Atsuko Tanaka, Valeria Villanova, Richard Bligny, Serena Flori, Denis Falconet, Anja Krieger-Liszkay, Stefano Santabarbara, Fabrice Rappaport,  Pierre Joliot, Leila Tirichine, Paul G. Falkowski, Pierre Cardol, Chris Bowler & Giovanni Finazzi, Energetic coupling between plastids and mitochondria drives CO2 assimilation in diatoms,  Nature, Juilly 2015, DOI: 10.1038/nature14599