Decoding diatom diversity: The 100 Diatom Genomes Project

An international team of scientists has taken a major step toward understanding one of Earth’s most important yet underexplored groups of organisms: diatoms. Scientists from the Marine Biological Association (MBA), including Senior Research Fellows Dr Katherine Helliwell and Dr Glen Wheeler, as well as researchers Yousef Touhami and Dr Trupti Gaikwad have joined more than … Read more

Marine Biological Association research sheds new light on the hidden world of aquatic fungi

Scientists at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) have published new research revealing how an ancient group of aquatic fungi builds their cell walls, providing fresh insights into fungal evolution and establishing a little-studied aquatic fungus as an important model system for future bioscience research.

Interdisciplinary workshop sparks new opportunities in marine research

Researchers from the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute (LSI) recently attended an interdisciplinary workshop focused on the cell and environmental biology of marine microbes and plankton. The event brought together academics working across a diverse range of disciplines, including marine microbiology, biophysics, structural biology, cell biology and ecology. … Read more

Research in algae provides insight into the origins of the animal nervous system

A new study indicates that major components of the animal nervous system are found in marine algae and play important roles in cellular communication. Multicellular organisms have developed many mechanisms to allow communication between individual cells. In animals, the amino acid glutamate acts as a neurotransmitter, allowing the transfer of information between neurons in the … Read more

Exploring coccolithophore communities in the Southern Indian Ocean

Our oceans contain a vast community of calcifying algae, known as coccolithophores, that play a critical role in the global carbon cycle through their ability to produce calcium carbonate in huge quantities. Coccolithophores are particularly abundant in the Southern Ocean, an area known as the Great Calcite Belt, but we know little about these communities due to their remote location.

New study reveals how tiny marine algae survive phosphorus starvation

Scientists at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the University of Exeter have uncovered a key mechanism that helps diatoms – the microscopic algae that underpin marine food webs – survive when one of life’s essential nutrients runs low.

Pioneering single-cell microelectrode study reveals how diatoms rapidly adapt carbon uptake

Scientists at the Marine Biological Association have used a pioneering technological approach in individual diatom cells to uncover how these microscopic ocean organisms rapidly adjust their carbon uptake strategies to cope with changing conditions in the ocean.

Studentship beneficiary reflects on a transformative summer of hands-on marine research at the MBA

Exeter University student and MBA Student Member, Jasmin Orak, joined the Marine Biological Association (MBA) this summer as a Spooner-Parke Summer Studentship awardee, spending 6 weeks immersed in hands-on marine microbiology research.

Why sequence the genome of every species? Latest Southward Review explores the roots of biodiversity and exposes unseen links between species

The Marine Biological Association (MBA) is delighted to announce the publication of the latest Southward Review in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association (JMBA). Written by leading evolutionary biologist Professor Peter Holland, the paper explores the question: Why sequence the genome of every species? In this wide-ranging and thought-provoking article, Professor Holland highlights how … Read more

MBA researchers visit the RRS Sir David Attenborough during Plymouth stopover

Scientists at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) were invited to step aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough on its visit to Plymouth this week, as the state-of-the-art polar research vessel made a short stop at His Majesty’s Naval Base Devonport ahead of its next Antarctic mission. The RRS (Royal Research Ship), operated by the British … Read more