Comparative characterization of putative chitin deacetylases from Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana highlights the potential for distinct chitin‐based metabolic processes in diatoms

Summary Chitin is generally considered to be present in centric diatoms but not in pennate species. Many aspects of chitin biosynthetic pathways have not been explored in diatoms. We retrieved chitin metabolic genes from pennate ( Phaeodactylum tricornutum ) and centric ( Thalassiosira pseudonana ) diatom genomes. Chitin deacetylase ( CDA ) genes from each genome ( Pt CDA and Tp CDA ) were overexpressed in P. tricornutum . We performed...