What the heck are glaucophyte algae? And where are they found? Spoiler alert: everywhere and nowhere. This week, Prof. Debashish Bhattacharya talks about Glaucophyta, one of the most ancient photosynthetic eukaryotic lineages on the planet and why they are great models for understanding evolution and endosymbiosis (a process introduced in last week's episode). He focuses on Cyanophora paradoxa, the most well-studied glaucophyte, what we can learn from this organism and its ancient origins, why few have studied the glaucophytes, and why it's important to explore our planet's biodiversity. Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, PhD is a distinguished professor in the department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers University. He runs a research program that focuses heavily on genomics and evolution and has worked on organisms including red seaweeds, red algal extremophiles, green algae, Paulinella, dinoflagellates, coral reefs, and sub-par postdocs. Debashish was the recipient of the 2022 Miescher-Ishida prize for endosymbiosis. He is also passionate about science communication and has produced award-wining short films describing his lab's research and its impacts that can be found on YouTube. You can follow his work on his website, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or on Twitter. Links to things mentioned in this episode: Paper describing Glaucocystis bhattacharyae (alga named after Debashish) Trends in Genetics paper we wrote about horizontal gene transfer Cyanophora paradoxa genome paper Book chapter on glaucophytes that I like because it covers everything Paper on the "menage a trois" (or MAT) hypothesis For more info on microbes and to follow updates of this podcast, find @couch_microscopy on Instagram, @CouchMicroscopy on Twitter, or visit www.couchmicroscopy.com/store for merch! Music is "Introducing Cosmic Space" by Elf Power and "Vorticella Dreams" by L. Felipe Benites. The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of any institution.

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