An introduction to the special issue: Oxyrrhis marina, a model organism?

Many “model” protists are maintained in culture and used, experimentally, to answer questions associated with planktonic processes. Given the current interest and rapidly increasing amount of literature on the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina, we present in this special issue a series of focused, interlinked research articles. Being written by experts in their respective fields, the authors have included unpublished data and in all cases have offered a synthesis of data and ideas. Furthermore, we have encouraged cross-paper discourse, emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of our work and the utility of O. marina to this end; we also offer guidance, both practical and intellectual, on how future research related to O. marina might progress. In this introduction, however, we raise the wider issue of which criteria are required to consider a taxon as a “model species”. We then assess the extent to which O. marina can fill this role. In general, we recognize O. marina as a model in three distinct disciplines: ecology, evolution/genomics and biogeography. Of possibly greater importance, we recognize that if O. marina continues to be studied at an escalating rate, there will be a concomitant increase in realized and potential synergies across these fields.