Search for: [Abstract = "Initially, most eukaryotic sequence projects were devoted to typical animals, fungi and plants. Now, more and more effort is put into sequencing pro\- tist genomes. Protists are an artificial assemblage that usually contains unicellular eukaryotes coming from different phylogenetic lineages, much more diversified and widespread than higher Eukaryota. The sequenced protist genomes are essential for reconstruction of the Tree of Life and understanding significant events in eukaryotic evolution and diversification. Many protists are parasites and pathogens of medical and economic significance, and play an important ecological role as primary producers and crucial links in food webs. A lot of protists also serve as model organisms in many biological fields and are becoming important in biotechnology. 37 protist genome projects were published until the beginning of 2010 and 217 are ongoing. Knowledge coming from these projects will be helpful in more efficient protection from pathogenic protists and their elimination. Sequenced genomes of ecologically important protists could help to understand many environmental phenomena and even to control them. Thanks to the newly sequenced genomes we can discover unknown enzymes and metabolic pathways that will be useful in many branches of biotechnology."]

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