Dinoflagellates are one of the last major lineages of eukaryotes for which little is known about genome structure and organization. We report here the sequence and gene structure of a clone isolated from a cosmid library which, to our knowledge, represents the largest contiguously sequenced, dinoflagellate genomic, tandem gene array. These data, combined with information from a large transcriptomic library, allowed a high level of confidence of every base pair call. This degree of confidence is not possible with PCR ‐based contigs. The sequence contains an intron‐rich set of five highly expressed gene repeats arranged in tandem. One of the tandem repeat gene members contains an intron 26,372 bp long. This study characterizes a splice site consensus sequence for dinoflagellate introns. Two to nine base pairs around the 3′ splice site are repeated by an identical two to nine base pairs around the 5′ splice site. The 5′ and 3′ splice sites are in the same locations within each repeat so that the repeat is found only once in the mature mRNA . This identically repeated intron boundary sequence might be useful in gene modeling and annotation of genomes.

Microalgae are generally thought of as photosynthetic microorganisms. However, the production of high-value products from microalgae using fermentation employing the ability of some microalgae to grow on sugar in the dark (heterotrophic production) has proven commercially very successful to date. This chapter outlines the factors behind the commercial success of growing algae using fermentation and briefly describes the heterotrophic potential of microalgae. The history of commercial-scale microalgae production using fermentation is outlined, and the three commercially successful production technologies now in operation are described. Research focused on extending these technologies into new arenas is discussed along with other elements that will factor into the continued, long-term viability of this type of microalgal production strategy.