Algal genome provides insights into first land plants

MAY 22, 2020

by Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell University



Penium margaritaceum. Credit: Cornell University

Cornell researchers have sequenced and analyzed the genome of a single-celled alga that belongs to the closest lineage to terrestrial plants and provides many clues to how aquatic plants first colonized land.

The report, "The Penium margaritaceum Genome: Hallmarks of the Origins of Land Plants," was published May 21 in the journal Cell.

Penium margaritaceum belongs to a group of freshwater algae called charophytes, and specifically to a subgroup called the Zygnematophyceae, which had a common ancestor with the first land plants some 600 million years ago. In order to shift from water to land—a transition that still puzzles scientists—plants had to protect themselves from drying out and from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and they had to develop structures to support themselves without the buoyancy provided by water.

The researchers found footprints of all these adaptations in the Penium genome, providing insight into the mechanisms and genetics that early terrestrial plants required.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2020-05-algal-genome-insights.html