Fans of diatoms (if you are not, get some pond water and a microscope and you soon will be) will be glad to know that 46 researchers from 26 institutions have finally sequenced the genome of Thalassiosira pseudonana.
If the news seems somewhat underwhelming, then the quote from one of the co authors of the paper, Dan Rokhsar, who heads computational genomics at Californias Joint Genome Institute should provide a little context.
“Diatoms can manipulate silica in ways that nanotechnologists can only dream about. If we understood how they can design and build their patterned frustule as part of their biology, perhaps this could be adapted by humans.”