Abstract
Ectocarpus is a genus of filamentous, marine brown algae. Brown algae belong to the stramenopiles, a large supergroup of organisms that are only distantly related to animals, land plants and fungi. Brown algae are also one of only a small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity. For many years, little information was available concerning the molecular mechanisms underlying multicellular development in the brown algae, but this situation has changed with the emergence of Ectocarpus as a model brown alga. Here we summarise some of the main questions that are being addressed and areas of study using Ectocarpus as a model organism and discuss how the genomic information, genetic tools and molecular approaches available for this organism are being employed to explore developmental questions in an evolutionary context.
Highlights
Ectocarpus is a genus of filamentous, marine brown algae
Natural habitat and life cycle Ectocarpus is a genus of small, filamentous, multicellular, marine brown algae within the order Ectocarpales
While most species are exclusively marine, some species such as Ectocarpus subulatus may occur in permanently brackish habitats such as the inner Baltic Sea and has even been encountered in mineral-rich freshwater [3]
Summary
Life cycle Like many brown algae, Ectocarpus has a haploid–diploid life cycle that involves alternation between two multicellular generations, the sporophyte and the gametophyte (Fig. 2; [10, 15]). Both generations consist of uniseriate, branched filaments, but there are some morphological differences between the two generations [15, 16]. Parthenogenesis has been exploited to isolate life cycle mutants using UV mutagenised gametes, where screens were designed to identify individuals that deployed the gametophyte instead the sporophyte developmental programme [18] This approach led to the identification of two loci involved in the alternation of generations, OUROBOROS and SAMSARA. The diffusible factor appears to act upstream of ORO and a SPOROPHYTE GENERATION zygote
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