''Bigelowiella natans'' is a species of

Chlorarachniophyte The chlorarachniophytes are a small group of exclusively marine algae widely distributed in tropical and temperate waters. They are typically mixotrophic, ingesting bacteria and smaller protists as well as conducting photosynthesis. Normally t ...

alga that is a

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

for the Rhizaria. Chlorarachniophyte are unicellular marine algae with plastids of secondary endosymbiotic origin. Bigelowiella natans are a key resource for studying the supergroup of mostly unicellular eukaryotes.

Genomes

The ''Bigelowiella natans'' genome was the first

rhizaria The Rhizaria are an ill-defined but species-rich supergroup of mostly unicellular eukaryotes. Except for the Chlorarachniophytes and three species in the genus Paulinella in the phylum Cercozoa, they are all non-photosynthethic, but many forami ...

n nuclear genome to be sequenced. The genome contains 94.7 Mbp encoding for 21,708 genes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20686034 Filosa Model organisms Species described in 2001