Rhodomonas salina. Rhodomonas salina

Rhodomonas salina belongs to the phylum Cryptophyta which consists of small phytoflagellates. Each flagellate cell bears two flagella, which differ in length. The cells are dorsiventrally constructed, the dorsal side is convex and the ventral side is flat. The chloroplast is variously colored due to a variety of photosynthetic pigments. R. salina is found in marine environments and bears red plastids. It is being used as a model organism for algal studies related to toxicity and also evolution. The mitochondria of R. salina has been completely sequenced. It is a circular genome of 48,063 bp and codes for 64 genes. Intergenic regions, when present, are A-rich.