PubMed2026
Endosymbiosis is a major driver of evolutionary innovation and underpins the function of diverse ecosystems. The origins and evolution of endosymbiosis are challenging to study experimentally due to the short-lived culturability of many microbial strains derived from endosymbiotic interactions. The facultative endosymbiosis between the ciliate, Paramecium bursaria, and the green alga, Micractinium conductrix (Chlorellaceae, Trebouxiophyceae), is ecologically widespread and has emerged as a powerful lab-tractable model system. This endosymbiosis is founded upon a reciprocal nutrient exchange, but each of the species can be cultured independently enabling quantification of symbiotic fitness effects, new partnerships to be generated in the lab, and co-associations to be subject to experimental evolution. To date, evolve-and-resequence approaches have been limited due to a lack of high-quality genome assemblies enabling gene variants to be identified. Here, we report a near telomere-to-telomere genome assembly for M. conductrix 186b, using a range of sequencing technologies. Comparative analysis shows that this is one of the most complete Chlorellaceae algal genome assemblies available to date. To aid accurate gene calling and annotation, we conducted both RNAseq and Iso-Seq transcriptome sequencing experiments. Collectively, these 'omics datasets will facilitate: (i) comparative genomics studies of endosymbiont evolution, (ii) evolve-and-resequence experiments, (iii) genome-scale metabolic modeling studies, and (iv) identification of targets for genetic modification experiments and biotechnological applications.