In the 2009 article "Genomic Footprints of a Cryptic Plastic Endosymbiosis in Diatoms" (Science 324: 1724-26), Moustafa et al. described their search for possible gene transfer from organelles to the nucleus in diatom genomes. They assumed that diatomic plastids came from red algae. However, they found that most were from green algae. Which is most likely?

Question

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The fact that most diatom plastids were from green algae suggests that at some point in their evolution, diatoms had an endosymbiotic relationship with green algae, rather than red algae. This is supported by the presence of genes in diatom genomes that are closely related to those from green algae, as well as the absence of genes related to red algae.

In the 2009 Article "Genomic Footprints of a Cryptic Plastic