Data expansion:

There are two ecotypes of Prochlorococcus, one is adapted to strong light, and the other is adapted to weak light. The genome of Prochlorococcus glabratus is 1657990 base pairs and 17 16 genes, which is the smallest genome among known oxygen-producing photosynthetic organisms.

The genomes of weak light-type Prochlorococcus are larger, but the similarity of 16S ribosomal RNA between them is 97%. According to the current bacterial classification method of human beings, they are still the same species.

Photosynthesis usually refers to the process that green plants (including algae) absorb light energy, synthesize carbon dioxide and water into high-energy organic matter, and release oxygen at the same time.

It mainly includes two stages: light reaction and dark reaction, involving light absorption, electron transfer, photosynthetic phosphorylation, carbon assimilation and other important reaction steps, which is of great significance to realize natural energy conversion and maintain the balance of carbon and oxygen in the atmosphere.

It took four years from the discovery of a large number of Prorocentrum in the ocean to the naming of Prorocentrum. 1979, Johnson and Sibos observed the marine organism protococcus with electron microscope for the first time.

Although they realized that this newly discovered single-celled organism had no phycoerythrin, which was the characteristic pigment of Synechococcus, they still classified it as "type II" because of the limited research methods and knowledge accumulation at that time.

Later, indirect evidence was 1983. Jeskas and Kerry discovered an unknown derivative of chlorophyll a in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean. Later, it was confirmed that this pigment was the characteristic pigment of the original green algae-divinyl chlorophyll.