The Ectocarpus genome and the independent evolution of multicellularity in brown algae

By J. Cock, L. Sterck, Pierre Rouzé, D. Scornet, A. Allen, G. Amoutzias, Véronique Anthouard, F. Artiguenave, J. Aury, Jonathan H. Badger and 67 more. Nature, 2010

915 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Brown algae (Phaeophyceae) are complex photosynthetic organisms with a very different evolutionary history to green plants, to which they are only distantly related. These seaweeds are the dominant species in rocky coastal ecosystems and they exhibit many interesting adaptations to these, often harsh, environments. Brown algae are also one of only a small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity (Fig. 1). We report the 214 million base pair (Mbp) genome sequence of the filamentous seaweed Ectocarpus siliculosus (Dillwyn) Lyngbye, a model organism for brown algae, closely related to the kelps (Fig. 1). Genome features such as the presence of an extended set of light-harvesting and pigment biosynthesis genes and new metabolic processes such as halide metabolism help explain the ability of this organism to cope with the highly variable tidal environment. The evolution of multicellularity in this lineage is correlated with the presence of a rich array of signal transduction genes. Of particular interest is the presence of a family of receptor kinases, as the independent evolution of related molecules has been linked with the emergence of multicellularity in both the animal and green plant lineages. The Ectocarpus genome sequence represents an important step towards developing this organism as a model species, providing the possibility to combine genomic and genetic approaches to explore these and other aspects of brown algal biology further.

Subfields: Aquatic Science, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6795f9190a27024615de45843454bb2c62b98e1b

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Citations in the corpus

Highlights in Seagrasses’ Phylogeny, Physiology, and Metabolism: What Makes Them Special? (2012, background): “They are important both in terms of resistance to mechanical stresses and as protection from predators [76].”
High-value products from macroalgae: the potential uses of the invasive brown seaweed, Sargassum muticum (2016, background): “The nuclear genome of S. muticum does not, as yet, appear to have been mapped and sequenced, but it is of a similar size (213 Mbp (Phillips et al. 2011)) to that of the model brown alga, Ectocarpus siliculosus [214 Mbp (Cock et al. 2010)].”
The Multiple Origins of Complex Multicellularity (2011, methodology): “For brown algae, we have good phylogenies and molecular clocks (Silberfeld et al. 2010), but only one genome and a limited understanding of developmental genetics (Cock et al. 2010).”
Comprehending crystalline β-carotene accumulation by comparing engineered cell models and the natural carotenoid-rich system of citrus (2011, neutral): “It has also recently become the first seaweed of which the entire genome has been sequenced and thus offers unprecedented opportunities for study (Cock et al., 2010).”
The seaweed holobiont: understanding seaweed-bacteria interactions. (2013, background): “Recent analysis of the Ectocarpus siliculosus genome revealed that up to 50% of natural algal population are infected (Cock et al., 2010), suggesting that viruses have the potential to strongly influence the evolution and ecology of macroalga.”
Algal Proteins: Extraction, Application, and Challenges Concerning Production (2017, neutral): “Brown algae are also unique among algae as they are only found in multicellular form [16].”