Abstract
While the process of meiosis is highly conserved across eukaryotes, the sexual systems that govern life cycle phase transitions are surprisingly labile. Switches between sexual systems have profound evolutionary and ecological consequences, in particular for plants, but our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and ultimate causes underlying these transitions is still surprisingly incomplete. We explore here the idea that brown and green algae may be interesting comparative models that can increase our understanding of relevant processes in plant reproductive biology, from evolution of gamete dimorphism, gametogenesis, sex determination and transitions in sex-determining systems.
Highlights
Sex is pervasive across eukaryotes and ensures the production of new genetic combinations
Meiotic sex was established at the root of eukaryotes (Goodenough and Heitman 2014), a remarkable diversity of sexual characteristics has evolved in different lineages since including the way sexes or mating types are determined
Several recent reviews have addressed the details of sex and life cycles for different algal groups (Coelho et al 2018; Umen and Coelho 2019; Coelho and Cock 2020) so we focus here on how volvocine and brown algal models may be used to tackle questions of importance to plant reproductive biology, from evolution of gamete dimorphism, gametogenesis, sex determination and transitions in sex-determining systems
Summary
Sex is pervasive across eukaryotes and ensures the production of new genetic combinations. Several recent reviews have addressed the details of sex and life cycles for different algal groups (Coelho et al 2018; Umen and Coelho 2019; Coelho and Cock 2020) so we focus here on how volvocine and brown algal models may be used to tackle questions of importance to plant reproductive biology, from evolution of gamete dimorphism, gametogenesis, sex determination and transitions in sex-determining systems.
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